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Introduction: Deficits in social cognition have been reported in people at ultra-high risk (UHR) of psychosis exclusively using socio-cognitive tasks and in adolescent and young adult mixed population. Objectives: Aim of this study was (1) to assess subjective experience of social cognition in adolescent help-seekers identified through UHR criteria, (2) to explore its significant correlationswith psychopathology and functioning inUHRindividuals; and (3) tomonitor longitudinally its stability after a 24-month follow-up period. Methods: Participants [51 UHR, 91 first-episode psychosis (FEP), and 48 non-UHR/FEP patients], aged 13-18 years, completed the comprehensive assessment of at-risk mental states and the GEOPTE scale of social cognition for psychosis. Results: In comparison with non-UHR/FEP patients, both UHR and FEP adolescents showed significantly higher GEOPTE total scores. After 12 months of follow-up, UHR individuals had a significant decrease in severity on GEOPTE "Social Cognition" subscore. In the UHR group at baseline, GEOPTE scores had significant positive correlations with general psychopathology, positive and negative dimensions. Across the 2-year follow-up period, social cognition subscores specifically showed more stable associations with general psychopathology and negative symptoms. Conclusions: Social cognition deficits are prominent in UHR adolescents and similar in severity to those of FEP patients at baseline. However, these impairments decreased over time, presumably together with delivery of targeted, specialized models for early intervention in psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Identifying distinct dimensions of negative symptoms in First Episode Schizophrenia (FES) might result in a better understanding and treatment of this invalidating symptomatology. Objectives: Aim of this study was to examine negative symptom structure in FES patients using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Methods: All 147 participants, aged 12-35 years, completed the PANSS and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. A principal component analysis with varimax rotation was performed to investigate PANSS negative symptomstructure in the FES total sample. Results: A 2-factormodel (i.e. "Expressive Deficits" and "Asociality" dimensions) was identified. Only "Expressive Deficits" domain had a significant negative correlation with baseline GAF score. Conclusions: This bipartite solution seems to be adequate to describe the phenomenological variety of negative symptoms experienced by FES individuals at the point of entry in early intervention services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]