Metacognition in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: From Research to Clinical Practice

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to submit your manuscript(s) to Behavioral Sciences for the Special Issue “Metacognition in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: From Research to Clinical Practice ”.

Metacognition may be defined as “knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena” (Flavell, 1979) or “the ability to think of one’s and others’ thinking” (Wells and Purdon, 1999). Interestingly, patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), undoubtedly the most serious mental illness, have been consistently found to have poorer metacognitive performance than the general population (Beck et al., 2004). Most importantly, these metacognitive deficits were linked with more severe psychotic symptoms (Lysaker et al., 2018), including impaired insight (David, 2019), and poorer clinical and social outcomes (Lysaker et al., 2018). Interestingly, metacognitive interventions were shown to reduce symptom severity (Philipp et al., 2019) and improve insight (Lopez-Morinigo et al., 2020), although the impact of these therapies on long-term clinical and social outcomes remains to be established.

Within this context, we encourage researchers in the field to submit your findings for publication in this Special Issue, of which patients (and their families and carers) should become the main recipients.

I look forward to receiving your manuscripts. 

References

Beck, A.T., Baruch, E., Balter, J.M., Steer, R.A., Warman, D.M., 2004. A new instrument for measuring insight: the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale. Schizophr. Res. 68, 319–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0920-9964(03)00189-0

David, A.S., 2019. Insight and psychosis: the next 30 years. Br J Psychiatry 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2019.217

Flavell, J.H., 1979. Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist 34, 906–911. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.906

Lopez-Morinigo, J.-D., Ajnakina, O., Martínez, A.S.-E., Escobedo-Aedo, P.-J., Ruiz-Ruano, V.G., Sánchez-Alonso, S., Mata-Iturralde, L., Muñoz-Lorenzo, L., Ochoa, S., Baca-García, E., David, A.S., 2020. Can metacognitive interventions improve insight in schizophrenia spectrum disorders? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Med 50, 2289–2301. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720003384

Lysaker, P.H., Pattison, M.L., Leonhardt, B.L., Phelps, S., Vohs, J.L., 2018. Insight in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: relationship with behavior, mood and perceived quality of life, underlying causes and emerging treatments. World Psychiatry 17, 12–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20508

Philipp, R., Kriston, L., Lanio, J., Kühne, F., Härter, M., Moritz, S., Meister, R., 2019. Effectiveness of metacognitive interventions for mental disorders in adults-A systematic review and meta-analysis (METACOG). Clin Psychol Psychother 26, 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2345

Wells, A., Purdon, C., 1999. Metacognition and cognitive-behaviour therapy: A special issue. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy.

Kind regards,
Dr. Javier-David Lopez-Morinigo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• schizophrenia spectrum disorders
• metacognition
• treatment
• outcomes