COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS AND PERSONALITY DOMAINS IN PATIENTS WITH FIRST-EPISODE PSYCHOSIS
Authors: Serretti *Alessandro , Rodríguez-Jiménez Roberto , Romero-Ferreiro Veronica , Nuñez-Doyle Aggie , Fabbri Chiara , Fanelli Giuseppe , Scala Mauro 
Published: February 2025

Background

Personality plays an important role in the clinical presentation, the course and the prognosis of psychotic disorders (1) also influencing the outcome of cognitive performances (2). However, there is a paucity of studies exploring personality domains in patients with recent onset of psychosis, particularly looking at their relationship with cognitive functions (3).

Aims & Objectives

To investigate whether personality domains relate to objectively measured cognitive functions in a sample of patients with first episode of psychosis (FEP) who received a diagnosis of schizophrenia after six months.

Method

34 outpatients (26.3, SD 6.7 years old; 60% male) took part in this cross-sectional study. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) (4), a 240-item questionnaire, was used to measure the five-factor model of personality (FFM) traits, including neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The cognitive assessment was performed with the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) (5). Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis were performed to identify the association between personality scores and cognitive functions.

Results

The significant correlations and the covariance analysis between the dependent variable (cognitive domain of the MCCB) and predictor variables (personality domains of the NEO-PI-R) are presented in the table.

Discussion & Conclusion

Openness consistently correlates with better performance across different cognitive domains. Intriguingly, neuroticism, which is typically associated with susceptibility to psychological distress and irrational thinking (6), shows an unexpected positive correlation with better performance in two cognitive domains. Exploring potential subgroups where this relationship is more pronounced could provide additional insights. These findings suggest a potential influence of personality domains on cognitive function, shedding light on how personality traits may modulate cognitive abilities in patients with psychotic disorders. These preliminary findings may have implications for guiding interventions aimed at improving specific cognitive domains associated with worse performance in individuals with certain personality traits. Further research is necessary to fully elucidate these intricate relationships and their implications for clinical practice.

References

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