Metacognition and social function in schizophrenia: associations over a period of five months.

Introduction: Deficits in the ability to think about thinking have been widely observed in persons with schizophrenia and linked with concurrent assessments of various forms of function. Less is known though about their links to outcome over time. To address this issue, the current study explores whether Mastery, a domain of metacognition that reflects the ability to use knowledge about one's own mental states and those of others to respond to psychological challenges, is related to the frequency of social contact and persons' capacity for social relatedness.

Deficits in theory of mind and social anxiety as independent paths to paranoid features in schizophrenia.

Research suggests paranoia among persons with schizophrenia may be the result of a number of different psychological processes including deficits in theory of mind (ToM) and social anxiety. To test this hypothesis, this study sought to determine whether a group of highly paranoid persons with and without a ToM deficit could be detected and whether the group with paranoia and better ToM might have high levels of social anxiety. To explore this, a cluster analysis was performed on a group of 102 adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in a non-acute phase of illness on the basis of ratings of paranoid features using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and levels of ToM deficit using a factor score which summarized four different ToM assessments.