title: Karolinska Scales of Personality, cognition and psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies on both personality dimensions and cognition in schizophrenia are scarce. The objective of the present study was to examine personality traits and the relation to cognitive function and psychotic symptoms in a sample of patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total 23 patients with schizophrenia and 14 controls were assessed with the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). A broad cognitive test programme was used, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales, the Finger-Tapping Test, the Trail Making Test, the Verbal Fluency Test, the Benton Visual Retention Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test .
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with controls, the patients exhibited prominent elevations on KSP scales measuring anxiety proneness and neuroticism (P = 0.000005-0.0001), on the Detachment scale (P < 0.00009) and lower value on the Socialization scale (P < 0.0002). The patients also scored higher on the Inhibition of Aggression, Suspicion, Guilt and Irritability scales (P = 0.002-0.03) while the remaining five scales did not differ between patients and controls. KSP anxiety-related scales correlated with the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) general psychopathology subscale. Cognitive test results were uniformly lower in the patient group and correlated with PANSS negative symptoms subscale. There was no association between KSP scale scores and PANSS positive or negative symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The patients revealed a highly discriminative KSP test profile with elevated scores in neuroticism- and psychoticism-related scales as compared to controls. Results support previous findings utilizing other personality inventories in patients with schizophrenia. Cognitive test performance correlated inversely with negative symptoms.
authors.affiliation: a Björn Mikael Nilsson, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience , Psychiatry, Uppsala University , SE 75185 Uppsala , Sweden.
authors.forename: Björn Mikael
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: b Gunnar Holm, Department of Neuroscience , Psychiatry, Psychologist, Uppsala University , SE 75185 Uppsala , Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Holm
authors.affiliation: c Lisa Ekselius, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Neuroscience , Psychiatry, Uppsala University , SE 75185 Uppsala , Sweden.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ekselius
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D001007:Anxiety; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
keywords: Cognition; Negative symptoms; Personality; Schizophrenia