Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:1031-1034
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Lateralized neuropsychological dysfunction in affective disorder and schizophrenia
MA Taylor, B Greenspan and R Abrams
The authors compared the cognitive functioning of 22 schizophrenic
patients, 105 patients with affective disorder, and 99 age-matched normal
control subjects. Results of an aphasia screening test indicated that the
schizophrenic patients made more total errors and more dominant
temporal/temporoparietal errors than patients with affective disorders and
that patients in both groups made more errors than controls. Patient sex,
age, drug treatment received at test time, previous neuroleptic drug
treatment, and severity of illness did not account for the differences.
These findings support the validity of the authors' diagnostic research
criteria and confirm prior reports of differences in dominant hemisphere
dysfunction between schizophrenic patients and patients with affective
disease.
