Relationship between awareness (EQS) and attention function (TMT) among patients with schizophrenia

Purpose: The social adaptation of patients with schizophrenia is generally thought to be inhibited by their lack of awareness. However, since awareness is a subjective experience and has never been clearly defined, no intervention capable of enhancing the cognition of patients with schizophrenia is known. The present study was performed to investigate the relationship between awareness and attention function in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: The subjects were 21 patients with schizophrenia who currently received out patient care and satisfied the eligibility criteria. Attention function was evaluated by using the Trail Making Test (TMT) Part A. Awareness was evaluated on the Emotional Quotient Scale (EQS). Factors related to awareness were identified by using Pearson's correlation coefficient or the t-test.

Results: The results showed associations between self-coping capacity, person-coping capacity, and situation-coping capacity evaluated by the EQS and ratings based on the TMT Part A.

Conclusion: The results suggest that attention is associated with awareness of patients with schizophrenia; however, further investigations are required to clarify the causal relationship.