title: No deficit in Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance of schizophrenic patients' first-degree relatives.
abstract: The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was administered to 92 schizophrenic patients, 25 first-degree relatives and 60 normal subjects in order to investigate whether this task could be considered a trait marker of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The schizophrenic patients performed significantly worse than either their relatives or normal subjects, but unaffected relatives did not differ from controls. Our results suggest that WCST performance is more likely a feature inherent to the disease process rather than an index of the genetic susceptibility to the illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, S. Salvatore Hospital, L' Aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stratta
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Daneluzzo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mattei
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bustini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casacchia
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology