Impact of social anxiety on social cognition and functioning in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders

The overall pattern of results indicates common mentalizing deficits in SZ + and SZ −; however, these deficits appear linked to different underlying deficits and different pathways to functional impact in the two patient subgroups. This study highlights some distinctive characteristics of schizophrenia patients with comorbid SAD and signals a need for further investigations into the sources of the mentalizing and functioning impairments in SZ + patients.