title: Neuropsychological evidence supporting a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia: a longitudinal study.
abstract: The stability of neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia and its relationship to clinical change was contrasted between 60 patients with schizophrenia (30 first-episode, 30 previously treated) and 38 healthy controls using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and clinical scales administered at intake and at a 19-month follow-up. Consistent with the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia, patients demonstrated deficits in cognitive performance at initial testing and did not show decline at follow-up. There were no differences in neuropsychological performance over time between first-episode and previously treated patients, nor between male and female patients or controls. As expected, patients improved clinically with treatment with respect to both positive and negative symptoms. First-episode patients improved more on the positive symptoms of hallucination and delusion; male and female patients showed equivalent clinical improvement. Clinical improvement correlated positively with neuropsychological change, with improved negative symptomatology accounting for most of the significant correlations.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia 19104-4283, USA.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Censits
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ragland
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Gur
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Gur
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology