Decision-making dysregulation in first-episode schizophrenia.
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.
Cattapan-Ludewig
Katja
K
University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. katja.cattapan@puk.unibe.ch
Ludewig
Stephan
S
Messerli
Nadine
N
Vollenweider
Franz X
FX
Seitz
Antonia
A
Feldon
Joram
J
Paulus
Martin P
MP
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