Understanding the burden of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia: results from the international LUCIA study
Background: Cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS) is a prevalent and clinically meaningful feature of Schizophrenia, yet real-world data on its recognition and impact across care settings are limited.The 'deLphi to Understand the burden of Cognitive Impairment Associated with schizophrenia' (LUCIA) is an international multistakeholder study that explored awareness, assessment practices, and the burden of CIAS to inform future care pathways. Methods: A three-phase, Delphi-informed design was applied, comprising of expert interviews (n = 11) to frame enquiry, qualitative interviews with health-and social-care professionals (HCPs; n = 74) and caregiver advocates (n = 11), two waves of a Delphi survey (n=449 and n= 343 HCPs in wave 1 and 2, respectively ) and a one wave survey for patients (n=61) and caregivers (n=112) across 15 countries (n=964).Results: The results showed poor awareness of CIAS across stakeholders.Structured cognitive assessment was infrequent and clinicians largely relied on the dementia-oriented Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) rather than schizophrenia-specific tools, citing time, training, and unclear actionability as key barriers.
Authors
- Silvana Galderisi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1592-7656)
- Åsa Konradsson‐Geuken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8739-9645)
- Satoru Ikezawa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4712-9373)
- Walter D. Lawhorn
- Monique van der Weijden-Germann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6840-3801)
- Sébastien Tulliez
- Bregt Kappelhoff
- Robert A. McCutcheon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1102-2566)
- Ana Fernández (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3269-396X)
- Christoph U. Correll (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7254-5646)
- Sheykhi Hagaieg Morgane
- Kari Skau
- Maite Artés (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-8003)
Institutions
- Uppsala University (SE)
- The King's College (US)
- University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (IT)
- Deutsche Telekom (Austria) (AT)
- Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- German Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology (DE)
- Einstein Center Digital Future (DE)
- Inland Hospital (NO)
- Boehringer Ingelheim (Taiwan) (TW)
- National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (JP)
- Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell (US)
- Huisarts en Wetenschap (NL)
- Boehringer Ingelheim (Egypt) (EG)
- Boehringer Ingelheim (China) (CN)
- European Federation of Nurses Associations (BE)
- Boehringer Ingelheim (United States) (US)
- Schizophrenia Research Institute (AU)
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- European Psychiatry
- Published
- 2026-04-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2026.12208
- Primary Topic
- Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00