Association of neurocognition, anxiety, positive and negative symptoms with coping preference in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Abstract It is recognized that persons with schizophrenia tend to cope with stress in a relatively avoidant and ineffectual manner and that this coping style is linked to poorer outcome. Less is understood, however, about the interrelationship between symptoms, deficits in neurocognition and coping style in schizophrenia. To determine the extent to which various neurocognitive deficits and symptoms are related to coping style in schizophrenia, measures of positive symptoms, negative symptoms, state and trait anxiety levels, verbal memory and executive function were correlated with self-report of preference for a range of active and avoidant coping strategies. Participants were 42 persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders enrolled in outpatient psychiatric care. Stepwise multiple regressions indicated that greater preferences for taking action when faced with a stressor were significantly ( p