Decreased impulsivity in Schizophrenia: Evidence from self-report and behavioral measures

Impulsivity contributes to deleterious outcomes among schizophrenia (SZ) patients, and it plays an important role in the diagnostic process. However, impulsivity can be measured in a variety of ways, and previous research has yielded mixed results regarding its relationship with positive and negative symptoms. To address this, we controlled for additional variables (e.g., educational level) and utilized various representative impulsivity measures, including the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), delay discounting task (DDT), probability discounting task (PDT), and balloon analogue risk task (BART), to assess impulsivity in SZ patients and its association with symptoms. Findings indicated that, except for the probability discounting task, all other measures consistently demonstrated reduced impulsivity in SZ patients. Additionally, impulsivity predicted the severity of SZ symptoms: self-reported impulsivity and emotional regulation difficulties predicted positive symptoms, whereas DDT performance and gender predicted negative symptoms. These results highlight the importance of multidimensional impulsivity assessment in SZ, with distinct impulsivity profiles differentially associated with symptom dimensions, which may guide symptom-specific intervention strategies.