Nonverbal communication remains untouched: No beneficial effect of symptomatic improvement on poor gesture performance in schizophrenia

SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH

卷:223

Article

Wuethrich, Florian¹  Pavlidou, Anastasia¹  Stegmayer, Katharina¹  Eisenhardt, Sarah¹  Moor, Jeanne^1,2  Schaeppi, Lea¹  Vanbellingen, Tim^3,4  Bohlhalter, Stephan⁴  Walther, Sebastian¹ 

[1] Univ Bern, Univ Hosp Psychiat & Psychotherapy, Translat Res Ctr, Bern, Switzerland

[2] Bern Univ Hosp, Dept Gen Internal Med, Bern, Switzerland

[3] Univ Bern, ARTORG Ctr Biomed Engn Res, Gerontechnol & Rehabil Grp, Bern, Switzerland

[4] Kantonsspital Luzern, Neurol & Neurorehabil Ctr, Luzern, Switzerland

关键词: TULIA;    Psychosis;    Nonverbal communication;    First-degree relatives;    Longitudinal;    Nonverbal skills;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.schres.2020.08.013

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Background: Gestures are an important part of communication. Patients with schizophrenia present gesture deficits that tend to deteriorate in the course of the disease and hamper functional outcome. This gesture deficit has been associated with motor abnormalities, cognitive impairment, and psychotic symptoms. Unaffected, first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients share some subclinical motor and cognitive abnormalities. We aimed to investigate, whether gesture performance changes with symptomatic improvement in patients, and to test the longitudinal performance in unaffected, first-degree relatives. Methods: In this study, we measured gesture performance using a validated test in 33 patients, 29 first-degree relatives and 38 healthy controls. Measurements were completed shortly after admission and before discharge in patients. Performance was rated blindly by experts using video recordings of the gesture task. Additionally, we evaluated cognitive function and psychotic symptoms at both visits. Results: Gesture performance was poorer in relatives compared to controls and poorer in patients compared to both relatives and controls. Patients showed an improvement in psychopathology but a significant decrease in gesture performance at follow-up, while performance in the other groups remained stable. Proportional change of gesture performance correlated with change of cognitive function in patients, whereas there were no correlations with change of cognitive function in the other groups. Conclusion: While symptom severity was reduced, the gesture deficit further deteriorated in schizophrenia. The finding argues for distinct processes contributing to poor nonverbal communication skills in patients, requiring novel alternative treatment efforts. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

【 授权许可】

Free