OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: This study compared 32 consecutively admitted
first-episode schizophreniform patients, 26 patients with chronic
schizophrenia according to the DSM-III-R criteria, and 25 normal comparison
subjects on a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests to
determine the degree of cognitive impairment existing at the onset of
schizophrenic illness. Patients were tested within 2 weeks of admission to
the hospital, after their medication had been stabilized. RESULTS: With age
and education controlled, the first-episode and chronic patients performed
significantly worse than the normal subjects on neuropsychological summary
measures of executive function, verbal memory, spatial memory,
concentration/speed, and global cognitive function and on left and right
hemisphere function scales. The first- episode patients were as cognitively
impaired as the chronic patients on all summary scales and many of the
individual tests. Both groups showed relatively greater left than right
hemisphere dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that
substantial cognitive deficits, comparable to those of chronic patients,
are present early in the course of psychotic illness.
Abstract Teaser