title: INECO frontal screening: an instrument to assess executive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
abstract: Although several brief sensitive screening tools are available to detect executive dysfunction, few have been developed to quickly assess executive functioning. The INECO Frontal Screening (IFS) is a brief tool which has proved be useful for the assessment of the executive functions in patients with dementia. The aim of this study was to explore whether the IFS is as sensitive and specific as the BADS, a battery designed to assess the dysexecutive syndrome, in schizophrenia. Our sample comprised a group of 34 schizophrenic patients (Mean age = 39.59, DP = 10.697) and 31 healthy controls (Mean age = 35.52, DP = 10.211). To all groups were administered the BADS, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and IFS. The results suggest that schizophrenic patients performed significantly worse than the control group in all tests (p < .05). The IFS total score was 13.29 for the experimental group and 26.21 for the control group (p < .001). Considering a cut-off of 14 points, the IFS sensitivity was 100% and specificity 56% in detection of executive dysfunction in schizophrenia, compared with the BADS, that if we consider a cut-off of 11 points, was a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 50%. Thus, IFS is a brief, sensitive and specific tool for the detection of executive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde - Norte (Portugal).
authors.forename: Tânia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde - Norte (Portugal).
authors.forename: Luís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: Centro Hospitalar do Alto Ave, E.P.E., (Portugal).
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lopes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult