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Title: Theory of mind deficits in symptom remittent schizophrenia: a state or a trait?
Author: Mohamed El sayed Eltaweel and Yaakob Ibrahim
Abstract:
Background Several research studies have reported impairments in theory of mind (ToM) abilities in patients with schizophrenia. In addition, there is some evidence that family relatives of schizophrenic patients also demonstrate deteriorating ToM and task performance suggesting a genetic vulnerability for the disorder. This study aimed to compare ToM impairments among symptom remittent patients with first-episode schizophrenia, their unaffected biological full siblings, and controls and also determine whether there is any association between clinical profile of schizophrenic patients and components of ToM abilities. Patients and methods The study included 50 male patients with symptom remittent first-episode schizophrenia, 50 biological unaffected full siblings, and 50 healthy individuals. The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) consists of a series of videotaped vignettes that are designed to measure social perception abilities and assess the detection of sarcasm, an important component of ToM. Results Compared with controls, patients with symptom remittent first-episode schizophrenia and their biological unaffected full siblings performed poorer on TASIT components (P = 0.001), with siblings having intermediate performance between patients and controls. We found a significant correlation between severity of negative symptom score, duration of hospitalization at index episode, and poor TASIT performance in the schizophrenic patient group (Po0.02). Conclusion Our findings support the notion that poor TOM abilities may be a trait rather than a state phenomenon of remittent first-episode schizophrenic patients. This suggests that effective interventions, such as social cognition and interaction training, may be beneficial in such patients. Keywords: biological siblings, schizophrenia, social perception, the awareness of social inference, theory of mind
Journal: Middle East Curr Psychiatry 24:102–108
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