Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1650-1655
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Remediation of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia
AS Bellack, KT Mueser, RL Morrison, A Tierney and K Podell
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19129.
Studies have suggested that schizophrenia is characterized by an impairment
in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that prevents learning of some
elementary information processing tasks. To test this hypothesis, the
authors administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test to 16 schizophrenic
inpatients with standard instructions and either contingent or
noncontingent reinforcement. Performance was markedly impaired under each
condition. A second cohort (N = 12) was tested after receiving instructions
plus rehearsal and feedback. These subjects' performance was comparable to
nonpatient norms and was maintained on a subsequent day. The results
indicate that deficits in performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
are remediable, whether or not they are due to neurological impairment.
