OBJECTIVES In schizophrenia, negative symptoms - especially emotional withdrawal (EW) - represent an important dimension, and are associated to a significant burden. Social contacts are likely to reduce negative symptoms and ameliorate quality of life (QoL) over time. Our objective was to test whether this hypothesis was verified in a large cohort of European patients with schizophrenia. METHODS We used data from the EuroSC study, a longitudinal cohort of 1208 patients with schizophrenia followed for 2 years. Every 6 months, the collected information included QoL-Interview, from which the Global Satisfaction Score (GLS) and the frequency of social contacts score were derived, and the Positive And Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), from which EW score was derived. After bivariate and correlation analyses, we tested whether few social contacts at baseline would predict greater EW and lower GLS after 2 years when adjusted on baseline level. Finally, random-effects regression analyses were performed to test the longitudinal effect of social contact, adjusting on potential confounding factors. RESULTS Bivariate and correlation analyses established a link between frequency of social contact and both EW score (-0.24, p<0.001) and negative factor scale (-0.30, p<0.0001) at each time point. Few social contacts at baseline were associated with greater EW (p=0.013) and worse negative factor score (p=0.009), when compared to baseline. A trend for prediction of better QoL was also found, although not reaching significance. Random effects regressions confirmed the significant impact of social contacts over time on EW (p<0.0001), negative factor score (p<0.0001) and QoL (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS

Given consistent effects of social contacts on reduction of negative symptoms and improvement of QoL in schizophrenic patients, social contacts should be used as a therapeutic tool. A higher frequency of social contacts could be obtained by regular therapeutic groups offered to these patients.