Social functioning and formal thought disorder in schizophrenia: A Bayesian meta-analysis.
Positive formal thought disorder strongly linked to poorer social functioning in schizophrenia
Social functioning and formal thought disorder in schizophrenia: A Bayesian meta-analysis.
Formal thought disorder (formal thought disorder) is a key determinant of social functioning in schizophrenia.
A comprehensive systematic review with stricter inclusion criteria to update prior meta-analyses, searching Scopus and PubMed for publications up to 31 January 2026.
worse thought organization tracks with weaker social functioning
Both dimensions showed negative associations with social functioning.
Negative formal thought disorder showed a smaller effect (r = -0.21, 95% CrI: -0.38 to 0.000) with moderate evidence (BF 10 = 7.97, posterior probability = 88.9%).
Positive formal thought disorder accounts for more variance in functioning than negative formal thought disorder, but this difference is not robust due to paucity of negative formal thought disorder studies.
High heterogeneity (I 2 > 76%), unexplained by known moderators, indicates substantial variation across study settings.
Both formal thought disorder dimensions link to poorer social functioning, with stronger evidence for positive formal thought disorder due to more studies and larger samples.
Positive formal thought disorder may affect social functioning by disrupting communicative competence, highlighting a need for interventions targeting communication deficits.