On the specificity of figurative language comprehension impairment in schizophrenia and its relation to cognitive skills but not psychopathological symptoms - Study on metaphor, humor and irony.

People with schizophrenia have difficulty understanding figurative expressions, such as metaphors, humor or irony. The present study investigated the specificity of figurative language impairment in schizophrenia and its relation with cognitive and psychotic symptoms. It included 54 schizophrenia and 54 age and sex-matched healthy subjects who performed a cognitive screening (ACE-III) and figurative language comprehension task consisting of 60 short stories with three types of endings: a figurative one and its literal and an absurd (meaningless) counterparts.

Sense of coherence and perception of self-influence on the disease course among patients with schizophrenia including quality of life - pilot studies.

Objectives: Current research studies reveal many protective and risk factors for relapse among patients with schizophrenia. The main aim of this study was to make an attempt at identifying the relationship between sense of coherence, self-influence on the disease course and quality of life determined by patients' suffering from schizophrenia current state of health.

Methods: The study involved 50 patients, diagnosed with schizophrenia by the ICD-10 criteria, who were/ were not suffering from relapse in 2-year period from last hospitalization.