Emotional intelligence and neurocognition profiles in first-episode psychosis: A two-year follow-up study

Abstract

Emotional intelligence; Emotional processing; Neurocognition

Inteligencia emocional; Procesamiento emocional; Neurocognición

Intel·ligència emocional; Processament emocional; Neurocognició

Emotional intelligence (EI) and neurocognition (NC) impairments are common in first-episode psychosis (FEP), yet their evolution over time remains unclear. This study identified patient profiles in EI and NC performance in FEP. 98 adult FEP patients and 128 healthy controls (HCs) were tested on clinical, functional, EI, and NC variables at baseline and two-year follow-up (FUP). A repeated-measures ANOVA compared the effects of group (patients and HCs) and time on EI. Significant EI improvements were observed in both groups. Four groups were created based on NC and EI performance at baseline and FUP in patients: impairment in NC and EI, impairment in NC only, impairment in EI only, and no impairment. At FUP, patients impaired in NC and EI showed less cognitive reserve (CR), greater negative and positive symptoms, and poorer functional outcomes. At FUP, three group trajectories were identified: (I) maintain dual impairment (II) maintain no impairment or improve, (III) maintain sole impairment or worsen. The maintain dual impairment group had the lowest levels of CR. EI and NC impairments progress differently in FEP. Greater CR may protect against comorbid EI/NC impairment. Identifying these patient characteristics could contribute to the development of personalised interventions.

This study is part of a coordinated-multicentre Project, funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PI08/0208; PI11/00325; PI14/00612), Instituto de Salud Carlos III – Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional. Unión Europea. Una manera de hacer Europa, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de salud Mental, CIBERSAM, by the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya AND Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia I Coneixement (2021 SGR 01120). Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, en la convocatòria corresponent a l'any 2017 de concessió de subvencions del Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS) 2016-2020, modalitat Projectes de recerca orientats a l'atenció primària, amb el codi d'expedient SLT006/17/00345. This work was supported by La Marató-TV3 Foundation grants 202234-30 (to E. Vieta), 202234-32 (to S. Amoretti). S. Amoretti has been supported by Sara Borrell doctoral programme (CD20/00177) and M-AES mobility fellowship (MV22/00002), from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), and co-funded by European Social Fund “Investing in your future”. MFF received the support of “Contratos predoctorales de formación en investigación en salud" (PFIS22) (FI22/00185) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) with European funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, by virtue of the Resolution of the Directorate of the Carlos III Health Institute, O.A., M.P. of December 14, 2022, granting Predoctoral Research Training Contracts in Health (PFIS Contracts). Funded by the European Union – tGenerationEU. E. Vieta thanks the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PI18/00805; PI21/00787) integrated into the Plan Nacional de I+D+I y cofinanciado por el ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); CIBERSAM; and the Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca del DIUE de la Generalitat de Catalunya to the Bipolar Disorders Group (2021 SGR 1358) and the project SLT006/17/00357, from PERIS 2016-2020 (Departament de Salut). CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. A. González-Pinto thanks the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities PI21/00713, PI18/01055 integrated into the Plan Nacional de I+D+I y cofinanciado por el ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); CIBERSAM; and the Basque Government 2022111054. C. Torrent thanks the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PI20/00344) integrated into the Plan Nacional de I+D+I y cofinanciado por el ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER).