title: Decision-making dysregulation in first-episode schizophrenia.
abstract: Studies with chronic schizophrenia patients have demonstrated that patients fluctuate between rigid and unpredictable responses in decision-making situations, a phenomenon which has been called dysregulation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether schizophrenia patients already display dysregulated behavior at the beginning of their illness. Thirty-two first-episode schizophrenia or schizophreniform patients and 30 healthy controls performed the two-choice prediction task. The decision-making behavior of first-episode patients was shown to be characterized by a high degree of dysregulation accompanied by low metric entropy and a tendency towards increased mutual information. These results indicate that behavioral abnormalities during the two-choice prediction task are already present during the early stages of the illness.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. katja.cattapan@puk.unibe.ch
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cattapan-Ludewig
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ludewig
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Messerli
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Vollenweider
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seitz
authors.forename: Joram
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feldon
authors.forename: Martin P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Paulus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D019277:Entropy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011337:Probability Learning; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior