Discrepancies between Self- and Clinical Staff Members' Perception of Cognitive Functioning among Patients with Schizophrenia Undergoing Long-Term Hospitalization.

The sample was only 48 long-term inpatients, which is small for comparing three groups. Cognitive functioning was assessed only by interview ratings, with no neuropsychological or performance-based tests. Psychiatric symptoms, intellectual functioning and unawareness of illness were not measured, so they may have influenced the discrepancy groups. Informants were selected by hospital staff as those who best understood each patient, and the number of informants was not reported. Patients had to be stable, communicative and able to consent, so the findings may not apply to acute, nonverbal or shorter-stay patients. The study did not test any discharge-planning intervention, so it cannot show that the suggested approaches improve outcomes.

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Do not conclude that staff ratings are the true measure of ability. The underestimators were rated as having less cognitive disability and better communication and responsibility than overestimators, but they reported much greater subjective difficulty and more confusion.