Cognitive processing and its relationship to symptoms and social functioning in schizophrenia.

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between contextual processing ability and symptom and social status in schizophrenia. The results showed that current symptom status is related to occupational status, and contextual processing is related to current symptom status and employment history. Current symptom severity in chronic schizophrenics may indicate an increased frequency and/or duration of symptom episodes in the past, and therefore an increase in the periods in which contextual processing was disturbed, which would therefore account for the observed decrease in work achievements.