title: Neurocognition, psychopathology, and subjective disturbances in schizophrenia: a comparison between short-term and remitted patients.
abstract: Patients with schizophrenia present deficits in multiple domains of cognition. The study of the relationship between cognitive performance and symptoms of schizophrenia has yielded heterogeneous results. The purposes of this study were to examine the extent of the relationship between psychopathologic symptoms, cognitive function, and subjective disturbances in a group of patients affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders and to compare short-term with remitted patients. Seventy-nine patients meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria for schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, and schizoaffective disorder were assessed through the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire, and a neuropsychologic battery exploring the 7 Measurement and Treatment Research to improve Cognition in Schizophrenia cognitive domains (speed of processing, attention/vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition) plus executive control. Neuropsychologic and psychopathologic variables were compared and correlated. Treatment groups did not differ in neuropsychologic and psychopathologic measures. The cognitive factor of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale correlated with worse performance on cognitive tasks and with higher scores on the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire 24 in the short-term, remitted, and combined groups. Subjective disturbances correlated with impaired executive control, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition but not during the short-term phase. Both "objective" and subjective psychopathology are intertwined with cognitive function, suggesting some common underlying neural bases. The condition of being in a short-term or a remitted phase of the illness influences this interrelationship, regardless of the type of antipsychotic medication taken.
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sense Organs, Unit of Psychiatry, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Rome 00189, Italy. anna.comparelli@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Comparelli
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Carolis
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Corigliano
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kotzalidis
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brugnoli
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tamorri
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Curto
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tatarelli
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferracuti
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Girardi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003071:Cognition; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology; D011340:Problem Solving; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents