Factors Influencing Social Functioning of People With Schizophrenia

Summary

In the last decades the impact of several variables on patients' social functioning has been investigated with conflicting findings. The involved variables might be grouped in three main categories: a) disease-related variables; b) personal resources; c) context-related factors. The present study is aimed to identify factors that affect most real-life functioning of subjects with schizophrenia and to assess negative and depressive symptoms, neurocognitive deficits and impairment of social cognition. Domains of negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunctions most associated with impairment of real-life functioning will be identified and appropriate data analyses will be carried out to define whether it has a direct or indirect impact on real-life functioning. The research units of Turin and Genua will also investigate the relationships between insight into the illness and real-life social functioning. The research unit of Genua will evaluate prevalence and course of depressive symptoms, insight impairment and neurocognitive deficits, and will define the relationships of these aspects with suicidal behavior and real-life social functioning. The Naples research unit n.1 will investigate the hypothesis that deficits of preattentive and perceptual functions underlie impaired social cognition and negative symptoms. An electrophysiological study will be carried out in which abnormalities of event-related components and gamma rhythm synchronization, relevant to preattentive and perceptual stages of information processing, will be studied as endophenotypes of the disorder.

The study will also investigate the heritability of disease-related variables by evaluating them in non-affected, first-degree relatives of subjects with schizophrenia. The research unit of Bari will test functionality of genetic variants relevant to dopaminergic signaling, that might confer risk for neurocognitive and related prefrontal dysfunction assessed by specific functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms. The Naples research unit n. 6 will perform an association study between selected putative schizophrenia genes and specific psychometric, neurophysiological and neurocognitive schizophrenia endophenotypes; moreover, the research unit will search for de novo copy-number variations (CNV) as putative risk factors for schizophrenia or schizophrenia endophenotypes and for de novo protein-altering mutations that may contribute to the genetic component of schizophrenia endophenotypes. The Naples research unit n. 5 will be responsible for defining a standardized protocol for the assessment of medical comorbidities in subjects with schizophrenia. All psychiatric research units will contribute to assess the role of factors related to the context in modulating the impact of variables related to the disease on real-life social functioning.

Conditions

• Schizophrenia

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Turin, Italy

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Bari

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Genova

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mario Maj, MD, PhD · University of Naples, SUN

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-06-30

Primary Completion

2014-07-31

Completion

2016-07-31

Countries

• Italy

Study Locations