Childhood onset schizophrenia: familial neurocognitive measures.
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.
Gochman
Peter A
PA
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
Greenstein
Deanna
D
Sporn
Alexandra
A
Gogtay
Nitin
N
Nicolson
Rob
R
Keller
Audrey
A
Lenane
Marge
M
Brookner
Francis
F
Rapoport
Judith L
JL
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