Specific executive/attentional deficits in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who have a positive family history of psychosis.
Neurocognitive impairments are well documented in patients with schizophrenia and their healthy first-degree biological relatives. Less is known about neuropsychological performance in bipolar disorders, but some studies indicate that, compared to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder displays a similar profile pattern with less severe deficits. The genetic and environmental contributions to the development of neurocognitive deficits are also unclear. This study explored the effect of a family history (FH) of psychotic disorders in first-degree relatives on a variety of cognitive domains (abstraction and flexibility, verbal fluency, verbal memory, motor activity and visual-motor processing/attention) in 30 patients with schizophrenia, and 24 type I bipolar patients. After adjusting the results for age, gender, education level and pre-morbid intelligence, patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with positive FH (n=18) performed significantly worse than patients with negative FH (n=36) on the visual-motor processing/attention domain. These findings were independent of the specific diagnosis. Moreover, when logistic regression analysis was performed, poor Digit Symbol performance was the only predictor of belonging to the positive FH group. Our results are compatible with the existence of some common genetic factors between the illnesses, as well as the involvement of identical, or at least similar, disordered brain systems in both disorders. These findings are discussed within the context of the continuum model of psychosis.
Tabarés-Seisdedos
Rafael
R
Teaching Unit of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Valencia, 15, 46010, Blasco Ibañez, Spain. rafael.tabares@uv.es
Balanzá-Martinez
Vicente
V
Salazar-Fraile
José
J
Selva-Vera
Gabriel
G
Leal-Cercós
Carmen
C
Gómez-Beneyto
Manuel
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index