Author(s)

Tomoya Takeda¹, Masahito Tomotake², Yoshinori Ueoka³, Tsunehiko Tanaka⁴, Takeo Tominaga¹, Yasuhiro Kaneda⁵, Tetsuro Ohmori¹

¹Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
²Departments of Mental Health, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
³Department of Clinical Psychology, Institute of Socio-Arts and Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
⁴Department of Community Psychiatric Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, ōtsu, Japan.
⁵Department of Psychiatry, Iwaki Clinic, Iwaki, Japan.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between cognitive function and employment in Japanese schizophrenia patients. Subjects were 61 outpatients. Cognitive function was assessed using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia. Clinical symptoms were also evaluated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia. Verbal memory (F(1, 58) = 5.50, p = 0.02) and attention and speed of information processing scores (F(1, 58) = 4.92, p = 0.03) showed significant differences between employment and unemployment groups. Logistic regression analysis showed that employment was significantly predicted by verbal memory (x² = 16.09, df = 2, p = 0.01) and depression scores (x² = 16.09, df = 2, p = 0.02). The results suggest that improving verbal memory and depression may lead to employment in Japanese schizophrenia patients.

Cognitive Function, Employment, Schizophrenia, Verbal Memory

Takeda, T. , Tomotake, M. , Ueoka, Y. , Tanaka, T. , Tominaga, T. , Kaneda, Y. and Ohmori, T. (2016) Relationship between Cognitive Function and Employment in Japanese Schizophrenia Patients. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 6, 65-70. doi: 10.4236/ojpsych.2016.61007.