background Emotional intelligence is concerned with understanding oneself and others, relating to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands. Higher scores on emotional intelligence tests have been associated with various indicators of social adaptation.

aims The aim of this study is to investigate emotional intelligence in patients suffering from a first psychotic episode in order to identify social cognitive endophenotypes for developing a non-affective psychosis.

method 39 patients, 41 siblings and 29 healthy volunteers completed the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (eq-i). The eq-i is a self-report measure of emotionally and socially intelligent behavior, which provides an estimate of one's underlying emotional and social intelligence.

results The groups differ significantly on total eq-i scores (F = 35.8, p < 0.001) and all of the subscales. Post hoc tests revealed that the patients had lower scores than both other groups. The siblings had significantly lower scores than the control subjects. The difference remains significant when the eq-i scores are corrected for iq and theory of mind (F = 13.9, p < 0.001).

conclusion The differences in emotional intelligence between the groups may provide an explanation for the deficits in social functioning of patients with schizophrenia.