TEMPORAL EEG ABNORMALTIES IN ACUTE SCHIZOPHRENIA
JOYCE C. SMALL M.D.1,
IVER F. SMALL M.D.2, , and
WILLIAM R. P. SURPHLIS M.D.1
1 Assistant professor of psychiatry, Dept. of Psychiatry, Washington Univ. School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
2 Assistant professor of psychiatry, and Instructor in psychiatry, Dept. of Psychiatry, Washington Univ. School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
The incidence of EEG temporal focal sharp or spike abnormalities in a representative sample of acutely ill schizophrenic patients was found to be 10%. The clinical implications of these findings were investigated by a comparison of these patients with other acutely ill schizophrenics who had normal EEG's, using a matched pair design. Although the groups are too small to draw firm conclusions, our patients with EEG temporal foci differed from the controls in terms of 1) lower ratings of severity of illness on admission, 2) later age of onset of symptoms, 3) fewer previous hospitalizations, and 4) a slightly better clinical status after 6 months. Further studies with larger numbers of patients over a longer period are necessary to substantiate these results.
