Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:1347-1349
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Correlations of premorbid adjustment in schizophrenia with auditory event-related potential and neuropsychological abnormalities
JJ Levitt, BF O'Donnell, RW McCarley, PG Nestor and ME Shenton
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Brockton VA Medical Center, MA 02401, USA.
OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the relationship between premorbid
adjustment in schizophrenia and event-related potential data and
neuropsychological data obtained after onset of the illness. METHOD: They
interviewed 13 male veterans with chronic schizophrenia, 12 normal
comparison subjects, and their first-degree relatives and also obtained
objective data from the patients' school records and charts. They used
interview and objective data to score the Cannon-Spoor Premorbid Adjustment
Scale. Patients and comparison subjects were also given event-related
potential tests, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and the Wechsler Memory
Scale-Revised. RESULTS: Worse premorbid adjustment in the schizophrenic
patients was significantly associated with a marked reduction of the N2
component amplitude of the auditory event-related potential measured over
the left temporal and central regions, but it was not associated with the
P3 component amplitude. Worse Premorbid Adjustment Scale scores were
significantly associated with more perseverative errors on the Wisconsin
Card Sorting Test and worse performance on the visual memory span task of
the Wechsler Memory Scale. CONCLUSIONS: Premorbid adjustment may predict
the severity of specific neurophysiological and neuropsychological
abnormalities in schizophrenia.
