Subjective perceptions of cognitive deficits and their influences on quality of life among patients with schizophrenia

Purpose Functional outcomes in schizophrenia may be more closely related to social cognition than to neurocognition; however, the extent to which social cognition influences quality of life (QoL) remains unclear. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study of the impact of patients' and clinicians' subjective perceptions of neurocognitive and social cognitive deficits on quality of life. Methods The study included 253 patients with schizophrenia and their clinicians from public mental health clinics in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. We utilized the GEOPTE Scale of Social Cognition for Psychosis, the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Questionnaire, and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenia. Results Patients' subjective perceptions of their neurocognitive deficits (B = -1.13; CI -1.56 to -0.70) were significantly associated with QoL, whereas there was no independent association between the clinicians' ratings of the patients' neurocognitive deficits and QoL (B = -0.33; CI -0.98 to 0.31). However, patients' subjective perceptions of their neurocognitive deficits were no longer associated with QoL (B = -0.23; CI -0.71 to 0.24) once their perceptions of social cognitive impairments were accounted for (B = -1.03; CI -1.39 to -0.68). Conclusion Patients' perceptions of their social cognitive function (but not neurocognitive functioning) have a significant impact on their QoL. Clinicians' ratings of patients' cognitive deficits were only weakly correlated with patients' subjective perceptions of their own neurocognitive, suggesting a mismatch between clinician and patient assessments of such deficits. Closer attention should therefore be paid toward patients' perception of their own deficits by clinicians in order to improve QoL.