title: Clozapine improves the orienting of attention in schizophrenia.
abstract: Attentional deficits are prominent in the cognitive profile of patients with schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether treatment with clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic and first-line intervention used to reduce positive and negative symptoms of psychosis, improves the attentional functions. We used the revised attention network test to measure alerting, orienting, and executive control of attention both pre- and post-treatment with clozapine in patients with schizophrenia (n=32) and compared performance to healthy controls (n=32). Results revealed that there were deficits in all three attentional functions pre-treatment, and while clozapine improved the orienting function in patients with schizophrenia, there was no evidence for improvement in the alerting and executive control of attention. The enhancement of the orienting function by clozapine may increase the ability of patients with schizophrenia to orient towards objects and thoughts of interest.
authors: Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York, Queens, NY, USA.
authors: Alfredo
authors: A
authors: Spagna
authors: Hefei Psychiatry Hospital, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Dong
authors: Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York, Queens, NY, USA.
authors: Melissa-Ann
authors: MA
authors: Mackie
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA.
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Li
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA; Research Service, Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center, Miami, FL, USA.
authors: Philip D
authors: PD
authors: Harvey
authors: Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors: Yanghua
authors: Y
authors: Tian
authors: Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China. Electronic address: wangkai@ahmu.edu.cn.
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York, Queens, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: jin.fan@qc.cuny.edu.
authors: Jin
authors: J
authors: Fan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology*; D003024:Clozapine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000187:drug effects*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D003024:Clozapine
keywords: Attention; Attention network test; Attentional networks; Clozapine; Schizophrenia