The association of metacognition with emotion recognition and perspective taking in a Russian sample with psychosis.

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia may reflect an interactive network of disturbances in cognition. In this study we have examined the relationship between two forms of cognition: metacognition and social cognition among a sample with schizophrenia (n = 41), early episode psychosis (n = 37), and major depression (n = 30) gathered in Moscow, Russia. METHODS: Metacognition was assessed with the Metacognition Assessment Scale-Abbreviated. Social cognition was assessed with the Ekman 60 Faces Test and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Verbal memory and global psychopathology were included as potential covariates. RESULTS: Partial correlations controlling for demographics, neurocognition, and psychopathology revealed greater metacognitive capacity was linked to better facial emotion recognition and perspective taking in the prolonged schizophrenia group. Greater metacognitive capacity in the early psychosis group was linked with greater facial emotion recognition. Metacognition and social cognition were not related to one another in the depression group. CONCLUSIONS: Social cognition and metacognition may be uniquely related in psychosis.

Clinical insight, cognitive insight and metacognition in psychosis: Evidence of mediation.

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia is increasingly understood as an interactive network of disturbances in different elements of self-awareness. In this study we have examined the relationship between disturbances in two forms of awareness: cognitive insight and clinical insight by exploring whether their relationship is mediated by a third form of larger awareness: metacognition. METHODS: Participants were 41 outpatients with schizophrenia and 37 outpatients with early episode psychosis gathered in Moscow, Russia. Metacognition was assessed with the Metacognition Assessment Scale - Abbreviated. Verbal memory and positive symptoms were assessed for use as additional mediators. RESULTS: Mediation analyses revealed that after accounting for the effects of positive symptoms and verbal memory, the relationship between the self-reflection domain of cognitive insight and clinical insight was significantly mediated by overall metacognitive capacity. Further, positive symptoms were a significant mediator between the cognitive insight self-reflection domain and clinical insight. Neither metacognition nor positive symptoms or verbal memory were found to mediate the relationship of the cognitive insight domain of self-certainty with clinical insight. CONCLUSIONS: Decrements in some forms of ability to reflect upon one's thinking may reduce the ability to form complex and integrated ideas of oneself and others, leading to less coherent and complete accounts of the experience of schizophrenia.

Contrasting metacognitive profiles and their association with negative symptoms in groups with schizophrenia, early psychosis and depression in a Russian sample.

Research has suggested that negative symptoms in psychotic disorders may be in part fueled by deficits in metacognition or the ability to form integrated ideas about oneself and others. One limitation of this work is that it has largely come from North America and Western Europe. To further the literature, we assessed symptoms using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and Metacognition using the Metacognitive Assessment Scale - Abbreviated in a sample of outpatients with prolonged schizophrenia (n = 41), early episode psychosis (n = 37) and major depression (n = 30) gathered in Moscow, Russia. Verbal memory was assessed for use as a potential covariate. ANOVA revealed the two groups with psychosis had significantly poorer metacognitive function in terms of self-reflectivity and awareness of the other, than the group with depression. In both psychosis groups negative symptoms were more robustly related to metacognition than other forms of symptoms after controlling for neurocognition. Results support the possibility that metacognitive deficits are a psychological factor which cross culturally contributes to negative symptoms and point to metacognition as a potentially important target for intervention.