The Association Between Executive Functioning and Personal Recovery in People With Psychotic Disorders.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Recovery in psychotic disorders is multidimensional, encompassing personal, symptomatic, societal, and functional aspects.
• Functional recovery (FR) involves compensating for cognitive impairments, particularly executive functions (EF).
• The association between personal recovery (PR) and FR, specifically EF, remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between personal recovery (PR) and functional recovery (FR) in individuals with psychotic disorders.
• To examine how different measures of executive functioning (self-reported vs. performance-based) relate to personal recovery.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study (UP'S study) assessed 260 participants with psychotic disorders.
• Personal recovery was measured using the Recovering Quality of Life (ReQOL) and Individual Recovery Outcomes (I.ROC).
• Executive functioning was assessed via self-reported BRIEF-A and performance-based Tower of London (TOL), with regression analyses conducted.

Main Results:

• Self-reported executive functioning (BRIEF-A) showed a small negative association with personal recovery measures (ReQOL and I.ROC).
• Performance-based executive functioning (TOL) was not significantly associated with personal recovery (ReQOL and I.ROC).

Conclusions:

• Self-reported executive functioning, reflecting real-life goal pursuit, is associated with personal recovery in psychotic disorders.
• Cognitive control and processing efficiency, as measured by performance-based executive functioning, did not show a significant association with personal recovery.