[How cognitive dysfunction affects the offender's social life in a case involving the Medical Treatment and Supervision Act]

The objective of psychiatric treatment is to enable patients to regain social competence and participate in society according to their desires. Cognitive dysfunction has recently garnered increased attention due to the prevailing view that it is closely related to the social functioning and strongly affects the functional prognosis in patients with schizophrenia. However, measures for improving the social function of patients with psychiatric disorders do not appear to be widely implemented in routine psychiatric treatment. During the present symposium,"SST for enhancing social life: Focus on cognitive dysfunction", we reported a case involving the Medical Treatment and Supervision Act with a description of how cognitive dysfunction affected the offender's social life and led to offenses, and stated that cognitive dysfunction greatly affects social functioning and that measures to improve cognitive dysfunction are thus necessary in routine treatment. We also reported that the compliance of patients is crucial when implementing these measures, and that it is therefore important to make efforts to "motivate" patients and continue to nurture their "eagerness".