Prediction of social skill acquisition in schizophrenic and major affective disorder patients from memory and symptomatology.

Memory and symptomatology were examined as predictors of social skill acquisition in psychiatric inpatients participating in a social skills training program. Poor memory was related to pretreatment social skill impairments and slower rates of skill improvement during the intervention for patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, but not affective disorder. Symptomatology was not consistently related to pretreatment social skill or changes in skill for either schizophrenic or affective disorder patients. The results suggest that cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are associated with impairments in social skill and that such deficits may limit the rate of skill acquisition and clinical response to social skills training interventions.