Neuropsychological and activity of daily living script performance in patients with positive or negative schizophrenia.
Cognitive and psychiatric determinants of impairment of complex activities of daily living (ADLs) were investigated in 33 schizophrenic patients and 16 normal comparison subjects. The schizophrenic patients were cognitively impaired and were deficient in the ADL. However, the impairment of ADL could not be explained specifically by impairment of higher-order executive function or by negative symptoms: memory functions were more related to impairment of ADL and positive symptoms as much as the negative ones. Positive symptoms were significantly related to commissive errors in the ADL, whereas negative symptoms were nonsignificantly related to omissive errors. Negative symptoms were significantly more related to memory impairment than to impairment on measures of higher-order executive function (working memory). This investigation demonstrates that an ecologically oriented approach to test development and measurement of ADL is fruitful in understanding schizophrenia-especially if it is constrained by cognitive constructs compatible with the phenomenology of the disease.
Godbout
Lucie
L
Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada G4A 5H7.
Limoges
Frédérique
F
Allard
Isabelle
I
Braun
Claude M J
CM
Stip
Emmanuel
E
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology