title: Childhood onset schizophrenia: familial neurocognitive measures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early onset disorders may have more salient familial/genetic etiology. Neurocognitive deficits which are seen in families of adult onset schizophrenic patients were examined in healthy family members of patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Trail Making Tests (TMT) A and B, Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Revised Digit Span and Vocabulary subtests were administered to 67 parents and 24 siblings of patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia and 114 healthy community controls (CC) comparable in sex, age, and educational level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  COS siblings performed significantly more poorly than did controls on Trails Making Test B with a trend for poorer performance evident on Trails Making Test A. COS parents performed more poorly than controls only on Trails Making Test A.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Healthy first-degree relatives of COS probands have subtle deficits in tests involving oculomotor/psychomotor speed, working memory and executive function. This provides further support for continuity between COS and later onset schizophrenia and for a familial/genetic factor associated with the illness.
authors.affiliation: Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 3N202, Bethesda, MD 20892-1600, USA. peterg@codon.nih.gov
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gochman
authors.forename: Deanna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greenstein
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sporn
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gogtay
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nicolson
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Marge
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenane
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brookner
authors.forename: Judith L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Rapoport
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D010641:Phenotype; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D012561:Schizophrenia, Childhood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D014145:Trail Making Test; D014888:Wechsler Scales