Social anxiety disorder in recent onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders: The relation with symptomatology, anxiety, and social rank.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) represents a common comorbidity in schizophrenia, but questions remain regarding how this comorbidity is related to symptomatology and self-perceptions. Forty-two patients with recent-onset schizophrenia were evaluated for SAD, and assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), as well as the Social Comparison Scale (SCS), which assessed how participants perceived themselves in relation with others (i.e., social rank). Eighteen patients met criteria for SAD (SZ+) while 24 patients did not (SZ-). Analysis of symptoms using a five-factor model of the PANSS revealed that the SZ- group had more severe symptoms than SZ+ on the Cognitive/Disorganization factor. Further analyses of individual symptoms demonstrated that the SZ- group was more affected in attention, abstract thinking, and cognitive disorganization (Cognitive/Disorganization symptoms), while the SZ+ group was more severely affected in anxiety, suspiciousness/persecution, and active social avoidance. Interestingly, severity of social anxiety symptom ratings correlated with certain PANSS symptoms only in the SZ- group. Perception of social rank, which was reduced in SZ+, displayed a trend level correlation with the positive symptoms in SZ-. Overall, the results suggest that SZ+ and SZ- may have different clinical profiles that could be important to consider when tailoring treatments for these patients.

Sutliff S ，Roy MA ，Achim AM 《-》

Social anxiety disorder in first-episode psychosis: incidence, phenomenology and relationship with paranoia.

Michail M ，Birchwood M 《-》

Impact of social anxiety on social cognition and functioning in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Schizophrenia patients display important rates of comorbid social anxiety disorder (SAD) but few studies have directly examined how SAD affects the presentation of schizophrenia, notably social cognition deficits and functioning. To compare social cognition performance of schizophrenia patients who meet the diagnostic criteria for a comorbid SAD (SZ+) relative to patients without such comorbidity (SZ-) and to determine if the impact of social cognition performance on functioning is moderated by that comorbidity. Social cognition performance (emotion recognition, social knowledge, and mentalizing), a control non-social reasoning task, as well as clinical symptoms and functioning were assessed in 26 patients with comorbid SAD (SZ+), 29 SZ- and 84 healthy controls. Patient groups significantly differed from each other on social knowledge performance, but not in levels of symptoms or overall functioning. Relative to healthy controls, SZ+ were impaired uniquely on mentalizing, whereas SZ- showed a more encompassing social cognition deficit that included mentalizing, social knowledge and non-social reasoning impairments. Mentalizing was the best predictor of functioning across both patient groups. Importantly, non-social reasoning negatively influenced mentalizing and in turn functioning only in the SZ- group. The overall pattern of results indicates common mentalizing deficits in SZ+ and SZ-; however, these deficits appear linked to different underlying deficits and different pathways to functional impact in the two patient subgroups. This study highlights some distinctive characteristics of schizophrenia patients with comorbid SAD and signals a need for further investigations into the sources of the mentalizing and functioning impairments in SZ+ patients.

Achim AM ，Ouellet R ，Lavoie MA ，Vallières C ，Jackson PL ，Roy MA ... -  《-》

Co-morbid social phobia in schizophrenia.

Mazeh D ，Bodner E ，Weizman R ，Delayahu Y ，Cholostoy A ，Martin T ，Barak Y ... -  《INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY》

Impact of traumatic and violent victimization experiences in individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Newman JM ，Turnbull A ，Berman BA ，Rodrigues S ，Serper MR ... -  《-》