Paranoid Schizophrenia versus Schizoaffective Disorder: Neuropsychological Aspects.
BACKGROUND
Neuropsychological aspects of paranoid schizophrenia have still not been examined enough.These disorders are usually not studied separately, but are included in the studies about schizophrenic patients with positive symptoms. Despite the fact that schizophrenia represents a heterogeneous group of mental disorders, usually it is not separated from schizoaffective disorder in neuropsychological researches.


OBJECTIVE
The essence of this research is to evaluate cognitive functioning of patients with paranoid schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder by applying neuropsychological tests.


METHODS
The research included 91 subjects, right handed, from 30 to 53 years old, who were classified into three groups: inpatients with paranoid schizophrenia in remission (n=31), inpatients with schizoaffective disorder in remission (n=30) and healthy subjects (n=30).


RESULTS
Both groups of patients showed poorer achievements than healthy subjects in most of the applied tests. Patients with schizoaffective disorder showed global loss of intellectual efficiency, executive dysfunction and compromised visual-construction organization. Patients with paranoid schizophrenia expressed partial loss of intellectual efficiency with verbal IQ and executive functions preserved.


CONCLUSIONS
In the remission phase, patients with paranoid schizophrenia expressed cognitive disorders in moderate degree, but when it comes to patients with schizoaffective disorder, more massive cognitive, deficits were registered.
Ljubica
L
Leposavić
Ivana
I
Leposavić
Bijana
B
Šaula-Marojević
Predrag
P
Gavrilović
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology