Social cognition and short-term prediction of suicidal ideation in schizophrenia. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Depp, Colin A.; Villa, Jennifer; Schembari, Blaire C.; Harvey, Philip D.; Pinkham, Amy
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry research. Volume 270(2018)
• Page Start: 13
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Schizophrenia -- Psychosis -- Suicide -- Social cognition -- Facial emotion recognition -- Cognitive bias -- Neuropsychology; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- periodicals; Psychiatrie -- Périodiques; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.09.005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0165-1781

Abstract

Highlights: Negative social cognitive biases, ratings of more extremely untrustworthy faces, and increased accuracy in recognizing negative affect were associated with suicidal ideation in schizophrenia. Negative social cognitive bias was associated with the presence of suicidal ideation at two weeks follow up assessment. Negative biases in processing and interpreting social information may foster suicidal thinking in schizophrenia. Abstract: Despite recent research acknowledging social cognition as an important feature of interpersonal functioning in schizophrenia, little work has evaluated the role of social cognition in suicidal ideation and behavior in psychosis. In a short-term longitudinal study, we evaluated the association between concurrent and near term suicidal ideation with social cognition, including emotion recognition and related biases (ER-40; BLERT), attribution biases (AIHQ), and evaluations of trustworthiness (trustworthiness task) in a sample of 179 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Adjusting for severity of positive and general mental health symptoms, greater reactivity to extreme stimuli (trustworthiness measure), BLERT negative affect accuracy, and AIHQ Blame Scores were associated with suicidal ideation at baseline. AIHQ Blame Scores also longitudinally predicted the presence of ideation 2 weeks later and were highest among participants with ideation across the two time points. The present findings provide support that biased interpretations, and, concurrently with ideation, reactivity and selective accuracy to negative stimuli, are associated with suicidal ideation in schizophrenia. Further understanding the role of social cognitive ability and biases on suicidal ideation could contribute to the understanding of social cognition as a treatment target in prevention of suicidal behavior in schizophrenia.