[Auditory P300 in assessing cognitive dysfunctions of Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the value of auditory P300 in assessing cognitive dysfunctions of aged patients with Alzheimer's disease(AD) or schizophrenia.


METHODS
An'oddball' paradigm was used to elicit the auditory P300 from 39 patients diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease according to DSM-III-R, 34 aged schizophrenics and 40 normally age-matched subjects, by using a Dantec Concerto SEEG-16 instrument.


RESULTS
The variability of P300 waveform increased in AD patients, who presented reduced N1 latency elicited by frequent stimuli. The P3 amplitude of the AD patients was lowered by 14% compared with that of schizophrenics, and by 60% than compared with that of normal controls. Compared with the normal controls, schizophrenics presented reduced N1, P2, N2 and P3 latencies, and their P3 amplitude was decreased by 54%.


CONCLUSIONS
The auditory P300 is of value in assessing the cognitive dysfunctions of AD patients and aged schizophrenics.
Zhang
M
M
Shanghai Institute of Mental Health.
Chen
X
X
Lou
F
F
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology