Subjectively-assessed cognitive impairment and neurocognition associations in schizophrenia inpatients

Cognitive impairment affects real-world functioning in people with schizophrenia who often face difficulties in their activities of daily living. Subjectively-assessed cognitive impairment can be evaluated through data on the patient's daily difficulties, as reported by the patient. However, the specific neurocognitive functions responsible for these cognitive impairments have not been clarified. We examined cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia using the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale Japanese version (SCoRS-J) and the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia Japanese version (BACS-J). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between subjectively-assessed cognitive impairment and objectively assessed neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia. The results showed that patients' global rating scores of the SCoRS-J were significantly correlated with the BACS-J attention scores (r = -0.376, p < 0.008), which indicates that the difficulties patients perceived in their daily lives are due to deficits in attentional functioning, as measured by neurocognitive testing. Thus, our findings indicate that improving attentional functioning may also alleviate difficulties in patients' daily lives.