Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01482-y ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Subjective experience of social cognition in adolescents at ultra‑high risk of psychosis: fndings from a 24‑month follow‑up study Lorenzo Pelizza 1,2  · Michele Poletti 1  · Silvia Azzali 1  · Sara Garlassi 1  · Ilaria Scazza 1  · Federica Paterlini 1  · Luigi Rocco Chiri 1,3  · Simona Pupo 4,5  · Andrea Raballo 6,7 Received: 7 August 2019 / Accepted: 23 January 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Defcits in social cognition have been reported in people at ultra-high risk (UHR) of psychosis exclusively using socio- cognitive tasks and in adolescent and young adult mixed population. Aim of this study was (1) to assess subjective experi- ence of social cognition in adolescent help-seekers identifed through UHR criteria, (2) to explore its signifcant correlations with psychopathology and functioning in UHR individuals; and (3) to monitor longitudinally its stability after a 24-month follow-up period. Participants [51 UHR, 91 frst-episode psychosis (FEP), and 48 non-UHR/FEP patients], aged 13–18 years, completed the comprehensive assessment of at-risk mental states and the GEOPTE scale of social cognition for psychosis. In comparison with non-UHR/FEP patients, both UHR and FEP adolescents showed signifcantly higher GEOPTE total scores. After 12 months of follow-up, UHR individuals had a signifcant decrease in severity on GEOPTE “Social Cognition” subscore. In the UHR group at baseline, GEOPTE scores had signifcant positive correlations with general psychopathology, positive and negative dimensions. Across the 2-year follow-up period, social cognition subscores specifcally showed more stable associations with general psychopathology and negative symptoms. Social cognition defcits are prominent in UHR adolescents and similar in severity to those of FEP patients at baseline. However, these impairments decreased over time, presumably together with delivery of targeted, specialized models for early intervention in psychosis. Keywords Social cognition · Emotion recognition · Ultra-high risk · Psychosis · Prodrome Introduction Social cognition is composed by a set of cognitive func- tions concerning perception, processing, and interpretation of social information, which are supposed to generate a Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01482-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Lorenzo Pelizza lorpelizza@ausl.pr.it 1 Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addiction, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola n.2, 42100 Reggio Emilia, RE, Italy 2 Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addiction, Azienda USL di Parma, Strada del Quartiere n.2, 43100 Parma, PR, Italy 3 Department of Primary Care, Azienda USL di Parma, Strada del Quartiere n.2, 43100 Parma, PR, Italy 4 Service of Anesthesiology and Resuscitaton, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria di Parma, Via Gramsci n.1, 43100 Parma, PR, Italy 5 Intensive Care Unit, Guastalla Civil Hospital, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola n.2, 42100 Reggio Emilia, RE, Italy 6 Division of Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Piazzale Lucio Severi n.1, Perugia, Italy 7 Center for Translational, Phenomenological and Developmental Psychopathology, Perugia University Hospital, Perugia, Italy