title: Neurocognitive Impairments in Deficit and Non-Deficit Schizophrenia and Their Relationships with Symptom Dimensions and Other Clinical Variables.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Deficit schizophrenia (DS) has been proposed as a pathophysiologically distinct subgroup within schizophrenia. Earlier studies focusing on neurocognitive function of DS patients have yielded inconsistent findings ranging from substantial deficits to no significant difference relative to non-deficit schizophrenia patients (NDS). The present study investigated the severity and characteristic patterns of neurocognitive impairments in DS and NDS patients and their relationships with clinical variables.
  
  
  METHODS
  Attention, ideation fluency, cognitive flexibility and visuospatial memory function were assessed in 40 DS patients, 57 NDS patients, and 52 healthy controls by a comprehensive neuropsychological battery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both schizophrenia subgroups had overall more severe cognitive impairments than controls while DS performed worse on every neuropsychological measure except the Stroop interference than the NDS patients with age and education as the covariates. Profile analysis found significantly different patterns of cognitive profiles between two patients group mainly due to their differences in attention and cognitive flexibility functions. Age, education, illness duration and negative symptoms were found to have the correlations with cognitive impairments in the NDS group, while only age and the negative symptoms were correlated with the cognitive impairments in the DS group. Multiple regression analyses revealed that sustained attention and cognitive flexibility were the core impaired cognitive domains mediating other cognitive functions in DS and NDS patients respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DS patients exemplified worse in almost all cognitive domains than NDS patients. Sustained attention and cognitive flexibility might be the key impaired cognitive domains for DS and NDS patients respectively. The present study suggested the DS as a specific subgroup of schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Wutaishan Hospital of Yangzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: XiaoWei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Medical Psychological Institute of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China; Department of Geriatric Psychiatry, Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: XiangRong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Wutaishan Hospital of Yangzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: XiaoBin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Wutaishan Hospital of Yangzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: WeiWei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sha
authors.affiliation: Medical Psychological Institute of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: ShuQiao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ni
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: XiangYang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: ZhiJun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult