People With Early Psychosis Exhibit Distinct Profiles in Neurocognition, Social Cognition and Cognitive Biases: An...

Research into the differences across cognitive domains has been conducted to characterize the various presentations of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. We aimed to identify distinct combined cognitive profiles with clinical relevance in patients with early psychosis (EP) by integrating neurocognition, social cognition and cognitive biases (CBs). Seventy-five outpatients attending an EP programme were assessed on neuropsychological performance, Theory of Mind (ToM), facial emotion recognition (FER), jumping to conclusions (JTC) bias and self-reported CBs through standardized tools. A two-step cluster analysis was performed to identify latent profiles. The optimal number of clusters was determined based on the Bayesian information criterion. Symptom dimensions, depression, global functioning, antipsychotic use, duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and sociodemographic variables were compared across the resulting clusters. Two distinct profiles were identified. The first cluster (53.3%) was characterized by significant impairments in neurocognition, ToM and FER, as well as greater JTC and self-reported CBs. The second cluster (46.7%) was defined by relatively preserved performance across cognitive domains. Furthermore, the impaired cluster showed more severe positive, negative and disorganized symptoms, poorer functioning, lower premorbid intelligence and increased use of antipsychotics. No significant differences were found for depression, DUP or sociodemographic variables. Concluding, cognitive clustering revealed a clinically impaired subgroup of patients with more severe psychotic symptoms and poorer functioning. Our results may contribute to a better understanding of the distinct cognitive profiles of patients with EP. These findings may be relevant because several interventions targeting different cognitive domains have been shown to improve clinical and functional outcomes in EP.