Cognitive Symptoms May Be as Burdensome as Psychosis for Patients Living With Schizophrenia
While patients living with schizophrenia discussed cognitive symptoms of the disease less often than psychotic symptoms, cognitive and other negative symptoms were “perceived” as “equally burdensome” as the positive symptoms of the disease due to the social stigma and isolation those symptoms entail.
These findings from an analysis of social media posts were presented via poster at the 2024 Psych Congress meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 31.
Authors used an artificial intelligence-based (AI) semantic analysis of social media posts to investigate the “burden of cognitive symptoms in the daily lives of people with schizophrenia.” Posts from 23 online health communities encompassing 4 languages from August 2020 to July 2024 were included, with various experiences collected and grouped by the generative AI-based tool, with their content being analyzed using Natural Language Processing.
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Overall, researchers collected 263,046 posts from 8219 unique users talking about their experiences living with schizophrenia. People who discussed symptoms (n=5251; 64%) mentioned cognitive and negative symptoms 30% less than they discussed psychotic symptoms. However, cognitive and negative symptoms were perceived as equally burdensome, with a “high severity” rating in 27% and 25% of mentions, respectively, compared with 33% for positive symptoms.
The cognitive symptoms most frequently mentioned by people were thinking problems (25% of all cognitive symptoms), general cognitive challenges (16%), forgetfulness (15%), memory deficit (14%), and irrationality (13%). Further, some users discussed how cognitive symptoms, combined with a lack of widespread understanding of schizophrenia amongst lay people, led to difficulties with stigma and isolation.
“The findings from this study are consistent with current literature describing schizophrenia as being associated with substantial cognitive impairment in addition to psychosis,” the authors wrote in their key conclusions. “Therefore, comprehensive treatment approaches that address cognitive symptoms are necessary.”
This study was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim.
Reference
Wieckowski K, Andreu T, Cimiano P, et al. Cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia: Social media discussions reveal the most burdensome cognitive symptoms and challenges related to social stigma and isolation. Poster presented at Psych Congress; October 29-November 2, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts.
