Metabolic disturbances, hemoglobin A1c, and social cognition impairment in Schizophrenia spectrum disorders

• DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-02002-z
• Publication Date: 2022-06-06T17:02:38Z
• Authors: Sunny X. Tang; Lindsay D. Oliver; Katrin Hänsel; Pamela DeRosse; Majnu John; Ammar Khairullah; James M. Gold; Robert W. Buchanan; Aristotle Voineskos; Anil K. Malhotra
• Keywords: Schizophrenia Spectrum

Social cognitive impairments are core features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and associated with greater functional impairment decreased quality life. Metabolic disturbances have been related to in general neurocognition, but their relationship social cognition has not previously reported. In this study, metabolic measures were assessed 245 participants SSD 165 healthy comparison subjects (HC), excluding those hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) > 6.5%. Tasks emotion processing, theory mind, perception. Functional connectivity within between networks was measured during a naturalistic task. Among SSD, significant inverse found cumulative burden (β = -0.38, p < 0.001) HbA1c -0.37, 0.001). The robust across domains after accounting for age, sex, race, non-social hospitalization, treatment different antipsychotic medications. Negative affect sharing motor resonance partial mediator HC groups -0.05, 0.008). There group x effect indicating that more adversely affected by increasing HbA1c. Thus, we provide the first report abnormal glucose metabolism. If replicated be causal, insulin sensitivity blood may present as promising targets improving cognition, outcomes, life SSD.