HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article This is an Open Access article Full text (free) Full Text (PDF) Data supplement Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by McGlade, N. Articles by Donohoe, G. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by McGlade, N. Articles by Donohoe, G.

Mental state decoding v. mental state reasoning as a mediator between cognitive and social function in psychosis

Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Blackrock, Co. Dublin

Judy Hayden, BA, Therese O’Donoghue, MSc and Rosie Peel, HDipPsych

Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Trinity College Dublin

Farhan Haq, MB, MRCPsych

Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Blackrock, Co. Dublin

Michael Gill, MRCPsych, MD and Aiden Corvin, MRCPsych, PhD

Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Trinity College Dublin

Eadbhard O’Callaghan, MRCPsych, MD

Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Blackrock, Co. Dublin

Gary Donohoe, PhD

Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Correspondence: Dr Gary Donohoe, Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, Trinity Health Sciences Building, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland. Email: donoghug{at}tcd.ie

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Theory of mind deficits in schizophrenia have been parsed into mental state reasoning and mental state decoding components. We report that mental state decoding as measured by the ‘Eyes task’ better predicted social function than mental state reasoning as measured by the ‘Hinting task’ in 73 out-patients with chronic schizophrenia. Mental state decoding task performance also partly mediated the influence of basic neuropsychological performance on social function. We discuss these findings in terms of the accumulating evidence that mental state decoding has particular relevance for understanding deficits in social function in schizophrenia.