Social skills deficits in schizotypal personality disorder

Evidence of long-standing social difficulties has been well documented in p ersons with schizophrenia. These deficits are often so rudimentary that a p erson with schizophrenia may never have developed the skills necessary to p resent as socially competent. Given the cognitive, biological, and neuroana tomical links between schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder (S PD), a study of social skills in persons with SPD may reveal a behavioral l ink. This study examined persons with SPD and their ability to label emotio ns in a recognition task, to display socially competent behaviors in a soci al role-play task, and to select appropriate behaviors from a multiple choi ce measure of social behavior. Results indicated that the performance of pe rsons with SPD was similar to previously published findings in persons with schizophrenia. In terms of emotion recognition, the SPD group's ability to label positive emotions was significantly worse than their ability to labe l other emotions. Persons with SPD performed significantly worse than match ed control participants on a social role-play task. However, the groups wer e equivalent in their ability to select socially appropriate behavior from a multiple choice measure. Those results suggest that persons with SPD disp lay social skills which mirror those previously reported in persons with sc hizophrenia. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.