Many studies have investigated impairments in cognitive domains in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, to date, a comprehensive overview on the patterns of cognitive functioning is ...lacking.
To provide an overview of nonsocial and social cognitive functioning in various domains in adults with ASD, allowing for comparison of the severity of deficits between different domains.
A literature search performed in an academic medical setting was conducted using PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, and Medline databases with the combination of the following free-text and Medical Subject Headings where applicable: cogniti* OR neurocogniti* OR neuropsycholog* OR executive function* OR IQ OR intelligence quotient OR social cognition OR emotion perception OR affect perception OR emotion recognition OR attribution OR ToM OR mentalising OR mentalizing OR prosody OR social knowledge OR mind reading OR social cue OR social judgment AND autis* OR ASD OR Asperger OR Asperger's OR PDD OR pervasive developmental disorder. The search was further limited to studies published between 1980 (first inclusion of autism diagnosis in the DSM-III) and July 2018.
Studies included were published as a primary peer-reviewed research article in English, included individuals with ASD 16 years or older, and assessed at least 1 domain of neurocognitive functioning or social cognition using standard measures.
Of 9892 articles identified and screened, 75 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review and meta-analysis.
Hedges g effect sizes were computed, and random-effects models were used for all analyses. Moderators of between-study variability in effect sizes were assessed using meta-regressions.
The systematic review and meta-analysis included 75 studies, with a combined sample of 3361 individuals with ASD (mean SD age, 32.0 9.3 years; 75.9% male) and 5344 neurotypical adults (mean SD age, 32.3 9.1 years; 70.1% male). Adults with ASD showed large impairments in theory of mind (g = -1.09; 95% CI, -1.25 to -0.92; number of studies = 39) and emotion perception and processing (g = -0.80; 95% CI, -1.04 to -0.55; n = 18), followed by medium impairments in processing speed (g = -0.61; 95% CI, -0.83 to -0.38; n = 21) and verbal learning and memory (g = -0.55; 95% CI, -0.86 to -0.25; n = 12). The least altered cognitive domains were attention and vigilance (g = -0.30; 95% CI, -0.81 to 0.21; n = 5) and working memory (g = -0.23; 95% CI, -0.47 to 0.01; n = 19). Meta-regressions confirmed robustness of the results.
Results of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that adults with ASD show impairments in social cognitive domains and in specific nonsocial cognitive domains. These findings contribute to the understanding of the patterns of cognitive functioning in adults with ASD and may assist in the identification of targets for cognitive interventions.
•Meta-analysis of 166 studies (12,868 individuals with schizophrenia)•Neurocognition and social cognition show small to medium effects with functioning.•Social cognition domains explained more unique ...variance in functional outcomes.•Social cognition is a partial mediator between neurocognition and functioning.
The current meta-analysis explored relationships between functional outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and different domains of neurocognition and social cognition. Literature searches were conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed, and ProQuest to identify articles reporting correlations between cognition domains and functional outcomes. Of 1361 articles identified, 166 met all inclusion criteria (12,868 participants; 518 correlations). Fifty-three random-effects meta-analyses yielded mean correlation estimates for relationships between neurocognition and social cognition and functional outcomes. Overall, associations between social cognition and neurocognition, and functional outcomes demonstrated significant small-to-medium effect sizes. Social cognition explained more unique variance in functioning than neurocognition (7.3% vs. 4.4%; 9.2% total average variance). Social cognition also mediated the relationship between neurocognition and functional outcomes. A significant proportion of the variance in the relationships between cognition and functional outcomes remained unexplained. These findings suggest that integrated interventions targeting both neurocognition and social cognition may optimally improve functional outcomes. Standardized measurement of cognition and functioning, longitudinal studies, and tests of additional moderators (e.g., first episode samples) in future research were identified as important future directions.
Social impairment is a long-recognized core feature of schizophrenia and is common in other psychotic disorders. Still, to date the long-term trajectories of social impairment in psychotic disorders ...have rarely been studied systematically.
Data came from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, a 20-year prospective study of first-admission patients with psychotic disorders. A never-psychotic comparison group was also assessed. Latent class growth analysis was applied to longitudinal data on social functioning from 485 respondents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and psychotic mood disorders, and associations of the empirically derived trajectories with premorbid social adjustment, diagnosis, and 20-year outcomes were examined.
Four mostly stable trajectories of preserved (N=82; 59th percentile of comparison group sample distribution), moderately impaired (N=148; 17th percentile), severely impaired (N=181; 3rd percentile), and profoundly impaired (N=74; 1st percentile) functioning best described the 20-year course of social functioning across diagnoses. The outcome in the group with preserved functioning did not differ from that of never-psychotic individuals at 20 years, but the other groups functioned significantly worse. Differences among trajectories were already evident in childhood. The two most impaired trajectories started to diverge in early adolescence. Poorer social functioning trajectories were strongly associated with other real-world outcomes at 20 years. Multiple trajectories were represented within each disorder. However, more participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders had impaired trajectories, and more with mood disorders had better functioning trajectories.
The results highlight substantial variability of social outcomes within diagnoses-albeit overall worse social outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders-and show remarkably stable long-term impairments in social functioning after illness onset across all diagnoses.
▶ Social cognition is stronger related to community functioning than neurocognition. ▶ Theory of mind has the strongest associations with community functioning. ▶ The broad set of cognitive domains ...left ¾ of the variance in outcome unexplained.
The current systematic review and meta-analysis provides an extended and comprehensive overview of the associations between neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning and different types of functional outcome. Literature searches were conducted in MEDLINE and PsycINFO and reference lists from identified articles to retrieve relevant studies on cross-sectional associations between neurocognition, social cognition and functional outcome in individuals with non-affective psychosis. Of 285 studies identified, 52 studies comprising 2692 subjects met all inclusion criteria. Pearson correlations between cognition and outcome, demographic data, sample sizes and potential moderator variables were extracted. Forty-eight independent meta-analyses, on associations between 12 a priori identified neurocognitive and social cognitive domains and 4 domains of functional outcome yielded a number of 25 significant mean correlations. Overall, social cognition was more strongly associated with community functioning than neurocognition, with the strongest associations being between theory of mind and functional outcomes. However, as three-quarters of variance in outcome were left unexplained, cognitive remediation approaches need to be combined with therapies targeting other factors impacting on outcome.
It remains uncertain whether people with psychotic disorders experience progressive cognitive decline or normal cognitive aging after first hospitalization. This information is essential for ...prognostication in clinical settings, deployment of cognitive remediation, and public health policy.
To examine long-term cognitive changes in individuals with psychotic disorders and to compare age-related differences in cognitive performance between people with psychotic disorders and matched control individuals (ie, individuals who had never had psychotic disorders).
The Suffolk County Mental Health Project is an inception cohort study of first-admission patients with psychosis. Cognitive functioning was assessed 2 and 20 years later. Patients were recruited from the 12 inpatient facilities of Suffolk County, New York. At year 20, the control group was recruited by random digit dialing and matched to the clinical cohort on zip code and demographics. Data were collected between September 1991 and July 2015. Analysis began January 2016.
Change in cognitive functioning in 6 domains: verbal knowledge (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised vocabulary test), verbal declarative memory (Verbal Paired Associates test I and II), visual declarative memory (Visual Reproduction test I and II), attention and processing speed (Symbol Digit Modalities Test-written and oral; Trail Making Test TMT-A), abstraction-executive function (Trenerry Stroop Color Word Test; TMT-B), and verbal fluency (Controlled Oral Word Association Test).
A total of 705 participants were included in the analyses (mean SD age at year 20, 49.4 10.1 years): 445 individuals (63.1%) had psychotic disorders (211 with schizophrenia spectrum 138 (65%) male; 164 with affective psychoses 76 (46%) male; 70 with other psychoses 43 (61%) male); and 260 individuals (36.9%) in the control group (50.5 9.0 years; 134 51.5% male). Cognition in individuals with a psychotic disorder declined on all but 2 tests (average decline: d = 0.31; range, 0.17-0.54; all P < .001). Cognitive declines were associated with worsening vocational functioning (Visual Reproduction test II: r = 0.20; Symbol Digit Modalities Test-written: r = 0.25; Stroop: r = 0.24; P < .009) and worsening negative symptoms (avolition: Symbol Digit Modalities Test-written: r = -0.24; TMT-A: r = -0.21; Stroop: r = -0.21; all P < .009; inexpressivity: Stroop: r = -0.22; P < .009). Compared with control individuals, people with psychotic disrders showed age-dependent deficits in verbal knowledge, fluency, and abstraction-executive function (vocabulary: β = -0.32; Controlled Oral Word Association Test: β = -0.32; TMT-B: β = 0.23; all P < .05), with the largest gap among participants 50 years or older.
In individuals with psychotic disorders, most cognitive functions declined over 2 decades after first hospitalization. Observed declines were clinically significant. Some declines were larger than expected due to normal aging, suggesting that cognitive aging in some domains may be accelerated in this population. If confirmed, these findings would highlight cognition as an important target for research and treatment during later phases of psychotic illness.
Epidemiological studies associate city living with an elevated psychosis risk. Urban (social/economic) stress and exposure to environmental toxins, pollution or disease agents have been proposed to ...underlie this association. This review provides an update on the recent evidence (May 2017 - November 2018).
Of 647 screened studies, 17 on: urbanicity-psychosis associations in worldwide high, middle and low-income countries; explanatory mechanisms, including nature exposure, social and economic stressors and genetic risk; urbanicity effects on the brain and coping; and urbanicity and resources, were included. The reviewed evidence revealed complex patterns of urbanicity-psychosis associations with considerable international variation within Europe and between low, middle and high-income countries worldwide. Social and economic stressors (e.g. migration, ethnic density and economic deprivation), nature exposure and access to resources could only explain part of the urbanicity effects. Risk factors differed between countries and between affective and non-affective psychosis.
Urbanicity-psychosis associations are heterogeneous and driven by multiple risk and protective factors that seem to act differently in different ethnic groups and countries. Interdisciplinary research combining approaches, for example from experimental neuroscience and epidemiology, are needed to unravel specific urban mechanisms that increase or decrease psychosis risk.
Social isolation has been suggested to foster paranoia. Here we investigate whether social company (i.e., being alone vs. not) and its nature (i.e., stranger/distant vs. familiar other) affects ...paranoia differently depending on psychosis risk. Social interactions and paranoid thinking in daily life were investigated in 29 patients with clinically stable non-affective psychotic disorders, 20 first-degree relatives, and 26 controls (
n
= 75), using the experience sampling method (ESM). ESM was completed up to ten times daily for 1 week. Patients experienced marginally greater paranoia than relatives
b
= 0.47,
p
= 0.08, 95% CI (− 0.06, 1.0) and significantly greater paranoia than controls
b
= 0.55,
p
= 0.03, 95% CI (0.5, 1.0), but controls and relatives did not differ
b
= 0.07,
p
= 0.78, 95% CI (− 0.47, 0.61). Patients were more often alone 68.5% vs. 44.8% and 56.2%, respectively,
p
= 0.057 and experienced greater paranoia when alone than when in company
b
= 0.11,
p
= 0.016, 95% CI (0.02, 0.19). In relatives this was reversed
b
= − 0.17,
p
< 0.001, 95% CI (− 0.28, − 0.07) and in controls non-significant
b
= − 0.02,
p
= 0.67, 95% CI (− 0.09, 0.06). The time-lagged association between being in social company and subsequent paranoia was non-significant and paranoia did not predict the likelihood of being in social company over time (both
p
’s = 0.68). All groups experienced greater paranoia in company of strangers/distant others than familiar others
X
2
(2) = 4.56,
p
= 0.03 and being with familiar others was associated with lower paranoia over time
X
2
(2) = 4.9,
p
= 0.03. Patients are frequently alone. Importantly, social company appears to limit their paranoia, particularly when being with familiar people. The findings stress the importance of interventions that foster social engagement and ties with family and friends.
Kraepelin considered declining course a hallmark of schizophrenia, but others have suggested that outcomes usually stabilize or improve after treatment initiation. The authors investigated this ...question in an epidemiologically defined cohort with psychotic disorders followed for 20 years after first hospitalization.
The Suffolk County Mental Health Project recruited first-admission patients with psychosis from all inpatient units of Suffolk County, New York (response rate, 72%). Participants were assessed in person six times over two decades; 373 completed the 20-year follow-up (68% of survivors); 175 had schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder. Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), psychotic symptoms, and mood symptoms were rated at each assessment. Month 6, when nearly all participants were discharged from the index hospitalization, was used as a reference.
In the schizophrenia group, mean GAF scores declined from 49 at month 6 to 36 at year 20. Negative and positive symptoms also worsened (Cohen's d values, 0.45-0.73). Among participants without schizophrenia, GAF scores were higher initially (a mean of approximately 64) but declined by 9 points over the follow-up period. Worsening began between years 5 and 8. Neither aging nor changes in antipsychotic treatment accounted for the declines. In all disorders, depression improved and manic symptoms remained low across the 20 years.
The authors found substantial symptom burden across disorders that increased with time and ultimately may undo initial treatment gains. Previous studies have suggested that better health care delivery models may preempt this decline. In the United States, these care needs are often not met, and addressing them is an urgent priority.
Cognitive impairment is a well-recognized key feature of schizophrenia. Here we review the evidence on (1) the onset and sensitive periods of change in cognitive impairment before and after the first ...psychotic episode, and (2) heterogeneity in neurocognitive presentations across cognitive domains between and within individuals. Overall, studies suggest that mild cognitive impairment in individuals who develop schizophrenia or related disorders is already present during early childhood. Cross-sectional studies further suggest increasing cognitive impairments from pre- to post-psychosis onset, with the greatest declines between adolescence, the prodrome, and the first psychotic episode and with some variability between domains. Longitudinal studies with more than 10 years of observation time are scarce but support mild cognitive declines after psychosis onset until late adulthood. Whether and how much this cognitive decline exceeds normal aging, proceeds further in older patients, and is specific to certain cognitive domains and subpopulations of patients remains to be investigated. Finally, studies show substantial heterogeneity in cognitive performance in schizophrenia and suggest a variety of impairment profiles.
This review highlights a clear need for long-term studies that include a control group and individuals from adolescence to old age to better understand critical windows of cognitive change and their predictors. The available evidence stresses the importance of interventions that aim to counter cognitive decline during the prodromal years, as well as careful assessment of cognition in order to determine who will profit most from which cognitive training.
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