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Introducton:The impact of social environment on the frequency and prevalence of schizophrenia is well known. However, in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, there are few studies which investigate the effect of social environment on disease prognosis and relapse. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of neighborhood social capital level and address change on relapse in schizophrenia and similar psychotic disorders.Methods: The research sample consisted of 147 patients (schizophrenia, 76.1%; n=112), who were being followed up at regular intervals of at most six months at the Psychotic Disorders Unit outpatient clinic. Patients were followed-up for relapse indicators between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2013. During the follow-up, relapse criteria including hospitalization, increased need for help, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, violent behavior, suicide attempts, antipsychotic dose increase and electroconvulsive therapy were used. At least one of these criteria was accepted as a relapse for that period. Neighborhood social capital levels were obtained from a general public survey conducted in Izmir city center in 2008 and the voting rates in the neighborhood during the follow-up period. In addition, during the follow-up period, any change in the address of the patient was recorded.Results: While there was no correlation between the neighborhood social environment and relapse, a significant relationship was found between relapse and address changes. The probability of relapse was 1.3 times higher in patients with change of address (95% CI: 1.0-1.6; p<0.05), and decreased likelihood of relapse was found as the duration of residence in the same neighborhood shortened (β: (-0.05) 95%

OBJECTIVE: Digit ratios may be accepted as an indicator of level of prenatal androgen exposure during the fetal developmental period. Female-typical digit ratios have been suggested to be associated with better mentalizing and empathic abilities in general population. Recently, a number of studies have investigated the ratio of hand's second and fourth digit fingers (2D:4D) in schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that positive symptoms are related to female-biased 2D:4D and relatively less impaired social cognition in schizophrenia, negative dimension is related to male-biased 2D:4D ratio and more pronounced deficits in social cognition. METHOD: The study was carried out in 48 patients with schizophrenia and 48 healthy controls. Patients were evaluated by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). A digital caliper was used to measure 2D:4D finger lengths and social cognitive abilities were assessed using the Empathy Quotient (EQ) test and Reading Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia had increased left 2D:4D finger lengths and showed poor theory of mind (ToM) and empathic abilities compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). It was found that negative symptoms but not male-biased 2D:4D ratio were significantly associated with impaired RMET performance (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The present study indicates that negative dimension is negatively related to the severity of deficits in social cognition in schizophrenia. There was no evidence for a significant effect of sexual dimorphism as measured by digit ratio on social cognition and symptoms in schizophrenia.

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It is well known that abnormal reward processing is a characteristic feature of various psychopathologies including schizophrenia. Reduced reward anticipation has been suggested as a core symptom of schizophrenia. The Monetary Incentive Delay Task (MID) is frequently used to detect reward anticipation. The present study aims to evaluate the amplitude and latency of event-related potential (ERP) P300 in patients with schizophrenia (SCH) compared to healthy controls during the MID task. Twenty patients with SCH and 21 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) were included in the study. ERP P300 amplitude and latency values were compared between groups using an MID task in which reward and loss cues were presented. Relations between P300 and clinical facets were investigated in the patient group. SCH group had enhanced mean P300 amplitudes and delayed peak latency in the punishment condition compared with HC. These higher responses were also associated with negative symptoms. SCH group showed altered reward processing as being more sensitive to loss of reward conditions as firstly evidenced by electrophysiological methods, possibly due to abnormality in various systems including social withdrawal, social defeat, and behavioral inhibition system.