Relation between social functioning and neurocognitive test results using the Optional Thinking Test in schizophrenia.

The current study investigated the relationship between clinical evaluations of social functioning and neurocognitive test results, including various fluency tests for assessing divergent thinking, in patients with schizophrenia. The Optional Thinking Test (OTT) was used to measure the ability of individuals to conceive of alternatives. This test assesses alternative thinking, or the capacity to generate solutions to problems.

Social cognitive problem-solving in schizophrenia: associations with fluency and verbal memory.

This study assessed the relationship between social functioning and neurocognitive function in individuals with schizophrenia. Social cognitive problem-solving (SCPS) is a significant contributor to social competence and is an aspect of information processing that is involved in the identification and resolution of interpersonal or social problems. We examined 49 schizophrenia patients and 28 healthy controls using the means-ends problem-solving procedure (MEPS) for SCPS, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and a series of fluency tests for neurocognitive assessment, as well as the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF).

Expressed emotion and social functioning in chronic schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to reveal the relationships between family expressed emotion (EE), family evaluations of social functioning, and the psychopathologic symptoms of patients with schizophrenia. We examined whether EE influenced the social functioning of patients with schizophrenia. Forty-four subjects with schizophrenia and 82 of their relatives participated in this study.

[Implementation of integrated mental health care in an urban district of Tokyo].

Japan had a long history of long-term hospital care and is now trying to change it into community-based psychiatry. Implementing comprehensive approach that has already been proven effective through evidence based data in one particular community, one has to overcome several local barriers, if the same approach is to be implemented in different situations, such as differences in socio-cultural background and health care system. This is a report of the activities of Minato Net 21 pointing out the "local barriers" on implementing comprehensive approach in an urban district of Tokyo.