Cognitive Correlates of Job Tenure Among Patients with Severe Mental Illness

Objective: There is clear evidence that cognitive performance is a correlate of functional outcome among patients with schizophrenia. However, few studies have specifically examined the cognitive correlates of competitive employment performance or the longer-term outcomes of vocational rehabilitation. The objective of the present study was to examine the cognitive predictors of vocational functioning in the context of a controlled clinical trial by comparing two approaches to vocational rehabilitation.

Method: A broad neuropsychological battery was administered to 150 patients upon entry into the vocational rehabilitation trial. Vocational performance was assessed over a 24-month follow-up interval.

Results: There were no differences in baseline cognitive performance between the 40 patients who obtained competitive employment and the 110 patients who remained unemployed over the follow-up interval. In contrast, multiple cognitive measures were significantly correlated with the total number of hours that patients were employed. The cognition-job tenure relationship appears to be fairly general, involving measures of IQ, attention, working memory, and problem solving.

Conclusions: Cognitive performance was a significant predictor of job tenure but not job attainment in the context of a clinical trial of two vocational rehabilitation approaches. It appears that many persistently unemployed patients are capable of obtaining competitive employment with effective vocational services. Longer-term employment success, however, may be related to multiple aspects of baseline cognitive performance.