The PECS proved to be effective in the improvement of some areas of theory of mind and emotion recognition in outpatients with schizophrenia. The PECS is one of the first programs developed in Spanish to train social cognition, and the data obtained support the importance of expanding the social cognition programs to non-English language samples.
Objective: Social cognition is recognized to be a deficit in individuals suffering from schizophrenia. Numerous studies have explored the relationship between social cognition and social functioning in outpatients with schizophrenia through the use of different social cognition training programs. This study examines the efficacy of the Social Cognition Training Program (PECS in Spanish) in adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Methods: Data were derived from a sample of 44 non-hospitalized adult patients, who presented with a DSM-IV-R Axis I diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 39 healthy controls. Patients were divided into an experimental group and a control task group, that received cognitive training. Healthy controls did not receive any treatment. Sociodemographic and clinic variables correlates were computed. 2-way ANOVA was conducted to examine differences between groups in pre and post-treatment measures. Intragroup differences were explores using the paired-samples t-test. Results: At the end of the training, patients in the experimental group showed a higher performance compared to patients in the control task group, in the Hinting Task Test and in the emotion recognition of sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. Conclusions: The PECS proved to be effective in the improvement of some areas of theory of mind and emotion recognition, in outpatients with schizophrenia. The PECS is one of the first programs developed in Spanish to train social cognition, and the data obtained support the importance of expand the social cognition programs to non-English language samples.
Research about emotion recognition in schizophrenia has shown that patients have a defi cit in perception of negative emotions. There are different tests to assess emotion recognition, but they have several methodological limitations. The aim of the present article was to develop a new tool to assess the six basic emotions. A study was done with 450 control subjects and 60 outpatients with schizophrenia. Fifty-six images were selected to form the test, eight for each basic emotion and eight neutral ones. All photographs had an accuracy higher than 89% and a test-retest reliability between 0.80 and 1.32 for controls, and between 0.61 and 1.92 for outpatients. Overall, data obtained show that the Emotion Recognition Assessment Test (ERAT) may be a good tool to assess emotion recognition in schizophrenia. This test is available for free in www.proyectoscores.es/pere.php Keywords: Basic emotions; schizophrenia; social cognition; assessment.Resumen: Los estudios sobre reconocimiento de emociones en esquizofrenia han demostrado que los pacientes presentan un défi cit en la percepción de emociones negativas. Hay varias pruebas disponibles para evaluar el reconocimiento de emociones, pero tienen inconvenientes de tipo metodológico. El objetivo del presente artículo fue desarrollar un nuevo instrumento para la valoración de las emociones básicas. El estudio se llevó a cabo con 450 sujetos control y 60 pacientes con esquizofrenia. Se seleccionaron 56 imágenes para formar la prueba, 8 por cada emoción básica y 8 neutras. Todas las fotografías obtuvieron una precisión de reconocimiento superior al 89% y una fi abilidad test-retest entre 0.80 y 1 para los sujetos control, y entre 0.61 y 1 para los pacientes. En conjunto, estos resultados indican que la Prueba de Evaluación del Reconocimiento de Emociones (PERE), disponible gratuitamente en www.proyectoscores.es/pere.php, puede ser una buena herramienta para evaluar el reconocimiento de emociones en esquizofrenia.Palabras clave: Emociones básicas; esquizofrenia; cognición social; evaluación.
IntroducciónLa cognición social se ha defi nido como los procesos y funciones que permiten a una persona entender las situaciones sociales, actuar en dichas situaciones y beneficiarse de las interacciones con los demás (Corrigan y Penn, 2001;Pinkham et al., 2014). Se han propuesto cuatro dominios que integran la cognición social: el procesamiento emocional, la teoría de la mente, el estilo atribucional y la percepción social (Pinkham et al., 2014). El procesamiento emocional se refi ere a la capacidad de percibir, entender y manejar de manera adecuada la información emocional, tanto en relación con uno
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