Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22949733›Full record

SynthesisSchizophrenia bulletin2013

Deficits in domains of social cognition in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of the empirical evidence.

Gauri N Savla, Lea Vella, Casey C Armstrong, David L Penn, Elizabeth W Twamley

Registry-linked trialAbstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Schizophrenia bulletin, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02575209 (Gender Differences in Social Cognition in Patients With Schizophrenia of Recent Diagnosis and Healthy Controls Subjects), which is not on this map. Cited by 280 papers, 16 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
280citing papers in PubMed, 16 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT02575209 completednot on this mapstarted 2015, after this paper: background citation

Gender Differences in Social Cognition in Patients With Schizophrenia of Recent Diagnosis and Healthy Controls Subjects

TypeobservationalSponsorCorporacion Parc TauliRan2015 to 2016Enrolled80ConditionsWomen With Recent Diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Men With Recent Diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Healthy Women, Healthy MenArmsGENDER
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

280 citing papers in PubMed, 16 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Do Individuals With Overweight and Obesity Have Reduced Affective and Cognitive Empathy? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025
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  12. Cognitive impairment in people with schizophrenia: an umbrella review.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2022
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  13. European Psychiatric Association guidance on assessment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2022
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220 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Gauri N SavlaDepartment of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. gsavla@ucsd.edu
Lea Vella
Casey C Armstrong
David L Penn
Elizabeth W Twamley

Funding

FELLOWSHIP IN GERIATRIC MENTAL HEALTHT32MH019934 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI Elizabeth W Twamley · 1994 to 2026
$9.5M
Cognitive Training to Improve Work Outcomes in Severe Mental IllnessR01MH080150 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI TWAMLEY, ELIZABETH W · 2008 to 2012
$1.4M
Biomarker Strategies for Medication-Enhanced Cognitive Training in SchizophreniaR34MH093453 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI SWERDLOW, NEAL R · 2011 to 2013
$689k
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH080150NIMH NIH HHS R01MH 080150NIMH NIH HHS R34 MH93453NIMH NIH HHS T32MH 019934
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveSocial cognition is strongly associated with functional outcome in schizophrenia, making it an important target for treatment. Our goal was to examine the average magnitude of differences between schizophrenia patients (SCs) and normal comparison (NCs) patients across multiple domains of social cognition recognized by the recent NIMH consensus statement: theory of mind (ToM), social perception, social knowledge, attributional bias, emotion perception, and emotion processing.

methodWe conducted a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed studies of social cognition in schizophrenia, published between 1980 and November, 2011.

results112 studies reporting results from 3908 SCs and 3570 NCs met our inclusion criteria. SCs performed worse than NCs across all domains, with large effects for social perception (g = 1.04), ToM (g = 0.96), emotion perception (g = 0.89), and emotion processing (g = 0.88). Regression analyses showed that statistically significant heterogeneity in effects within domains was not explained by age, education, or gender. Greater deficits in social and emotion perception were associated with inpatient status, and greater deficits in emotion processing were associated with longer illness duration.

conclusionsDespite the limitations of existing studies, including lack of standardization or psychometric validation of measures, the evidence for deficits across multiple social cognitive domains in schizophrenia is clear. Future research should examine the role of neurobiological and psychosocial factors in models linking various aspects of deficit in schizophrenia, including social cognition, in order to identify targets for intervention.

Indexed as

Social PerceptionCognition DisordersEmotionsHumansSchizophreniaTheory of Mind

Identifiers

PMID22949733
PMCPMC3756768

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.