Investigating the relationship between negative symptoms and metacognitive functioning in psychosis: An individual participant data meta-analysis.

McGuire N, Gumley A, Hasson-Ohayon I, Allan S, Aunjitsakul W, Aydin O, Bo S, Bonfils KA, Bröcker AL, de Jong S, Dimaggio G, Inchausti F, Jansen JE, Lecomte T, Luther L, MacBeth A, Montag C, Pedersen MB, Pijnenborg GHM, Popolo R, Schwannauer M, Trauelsen AM, van Donkersgoed R, Wu W, Wang K, Lysaker PH, McLeod H. Investigating the relationship between negative symptoms and metacognitive functioning in psychosis: An individual participant data meta-analysis. Psychology and psychotherapy. 2023 Dec 1; 96(4):918-933.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

PURPOSE: Negative symptoms are a persistent, yet under-explored problem in psychosis. Disturbances in metacognition are a potential causal factor in negative symptom development and maintenance. This meta-analysis uses individual participant data (IPD) from existing research to assess the relationship between negative symptoms and metacognition treated as summed scores and domains. METHODS: Data sets containing individuals with negative symptoms and metacognition data, aged 16+ with psychosis, were identified according to pre-specific parameters. IPD integrity and completeness were checked and data were synthesized in two-stage meta-analyses of each negative symptoms cluster compared with metacognition in seemingly unrelated regression using restricted maximum likelihood estimation. Planned and exploratory sensitivity analyses were also conducted. RESULTS: Thirty-three eligible data sets were identified with 21 with sufficient similarity and availability to be included in meta-analyses, corresponding to 1301 participants. The strongest relationships observed were between summed scores of negative symptoms and metacognition. Metacognitive domains of self-reflectivity and understanding others' minds, and expressive negative symptoms emerged as significant in some meta-analyses. The uncertainty of several effect estimates increased significantly when controlling for covariates. CONCLUSIONS: This robust meta-analysis highlights the impact of using summed versus domain-specific scores of metacognition and negative symptoms, and relationships are not as clear-cut as once believed. Findings support arguments for further differentiation of negative symptom profiles and continued granular exploration of the relationship between metacognition and negative symptoms.