[Neuropsychological deficits in the initial acute episode of schizophrenia. A comparison with chronic schizophrenic patients].
By administering an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests, cognitive performance of 66 patients with first episode schizophrenia, 49 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls has been assessed in the areas of memory functions, speech and cognitive flexibility/abstraction. The three groups were comparable with regard to age, gender and education. Both patient groups showed a significant generalized neuropsychological impairment relative to controls. Patients with first episode were most impaired in visual motor processing and attention (VSM). Besides impairment in VSM, performance in abstraction/flexibility was significantly worse in chronic schizophrenics compared to first episode schizophrenics. Our findings suggest that neuropsychological functions are already impaired at the onset of the illness. Whether cognitive impairment in performance that is attributed to frontal dysfunctions is deteriorating during the course of the illness or is predicting an unfavourable course can only be answered by prospective follow-up studies.
Sobizack
N
N
Bezirkskrankenhaus Haar, Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Albus
M
M
Hubmann
W
W
Mohr
F
F
Binder
J
J
Hecht
S
S
Scherer
J
J
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
Neuropsychologische Defizite bei ersterkrankten schizophrenen Patienten. Vergleich zu chronisch schizophrenen Patienten.