Deficit dell'intelligenza sociale e funzionamento nella schizofrenia, nel disturbo bipolare e nella depressione maggiore: Uno studio sulla "teoria della mente"

Background: Impairment of social functioning is one of the worst consequences of psychiatric disorders. Deficits in sociat cognition domains, like the "Theory of Mind" (ToM) [i.e., the ability to decipher others' mental states to account for (or make inference on) their behavior], are supposed to take part in social impairment of psychiatric patients. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to explore the utility of a ToM test for assessing social functioning in a heterogeneous sample of stabilized psychiatric patients. Materials and methods: The study sample included 118 patients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia (N = 56), bipolar depression (N = 33), and major depression (N = 29). The ToM test was composed of two brief stories, representing the first and second ToM order respectively. The social functioning was assessed by the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS) of the DSM-IV-TR. Results: An ANCOVA model, after controlling for the confounding effects of age and education level, showed that the capacity to solve the two orders of the ToM was significantly related to the level of SOFAS (F2.107 = 7.985; p = 0.001; ηp2 = 0.13). Although schizophrenics had a lower SOFAS level than other patients (F2.107 = 16.648; p < 0.0001; ηp 2 = 0.24), there was no interaction effect "ToM" x "diagnostic category" (F4.107 = 0.505; p = 0.73; ηp2 = 0.02). Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest that social intelligence has an important role in influencing the social functioning of psychiatric patients, independently from the diagnosis.