Better social cognitive performance of bipolar disorder (BD) patients than schizophrenic (SZ) patients in a specific cluster suggests that relatively preserved social cognition may be important to identify disease process distinct to each disorder, a recent study found. Researchers employed a cross-diagnostic cluster analysis to identify subgroups of individuals with shared cognitive phenotypes. 143 participants (68 BD patients, 39 SZ patients, 36 healthy controls) completed a battery of tests and assessments on perception, nonsocial cognition, and social cognition. Researchers found:

• 1 cluster that included 44 BD patients, 31 controls, and 5 SZ patients showed better cognition (high cluster) than the other cluster with 24 BD patients, 35 SZ patients, and 5 controls (low cluster).
• BD patients in the high cluster performed better than BD patients in the low cluster across cognitive domains.
• Within each cluster, participants with different clinical diagnoses showed different profiles across cognitive domains.