Symptom severity is more closely associated with social functioning status in inpatients with schizophrenia than cognitive deficits

BACKGROUND: Prior research has determined that impairment in neurocognition and psychiatric symptoms contribute to reduced occupational and social functioning in schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the relationships of neurocognition, psychiatric symptoms, and psychosocial functioning in male inpatients with schizophrenia in China. METHODS: Fifty-one male patients currently hospitalised at the Shanghai Mental Health Center with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were recruited and 40 of them were included in the final analysis. Participants were assessed with Chinese versions of the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP), Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) scale, Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), Letter-Number Sequencing Task, and Hong Kong List Learning Test. RESULTS: Robust negative correlations were found between three clinical subscale scores derived from the PANSS and the global measures of social function (the total PSP score and the CGI-S score). Performance on the neurocognitive tasks was not associated with either symptoms or social functioning status. CONCLUSIONS: Among inpatients in the acute phase of schizophrenia, the severity of the clinical symptoms—not the degree of the neurocognitive impairment—is closely associated with the level of social functioning.