Cognitive Impairment in Adolescents With Schizophrenia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Cognitive functioning in adolescents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders
Psychiatry Research, 2004
In contrast to studies of cognitive functioning in adults with schizophrenia, there has been a relative paucity of studies assessing adolescents with schizophrenia. We investigated cognitive functioning in 22 adolescents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders compared with 30 healthy adolescents. The patient group demonstrated impaired performance on all of the functions investigated except sustained attention. Against the background of this broad impairment, executive function and psychomotor speed were the most impaired, sustained attention was spared, while preattentional processing, early visual information processing, visual long-term memory, auditory short-term memory and working memory emerged as relative deficits. The study shows that adolescents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders demonstrate a similar pattern of cognitive functioning to adults in all areas, except sustained attention.
The Maudsley Early-Onset Schizophrenia Study: cognitive function in adolescent-onset schizophrenia
Schizophrenia Research, 2003
Generalized cognitive deficits have been consistently reported in adolescents with early onset schizophrenia (EOS; defined as onset before the age of 17 years). The impact on cognition of potential interactions between disease pathology and brain maturation remains unclear. We therefore compared cognitive function between 20 EOS patients and 20 healthy controls matched on age, gender, and parental socioeconomic status at 2 time points, when aged 15.58 (2.27) and after a mean interval of 4 6 1.08 years when aged 19.46 (2.21) years. Repeated measures analyses revealed no differences between patients and controls in the degree of change over this time period in general intellectual function and planning ability as measured by the Tower of London. There was deterioration in the verbal memory and attentional control index scores from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised but relative improvement in Part A of the Trail Making Test. Patients' level of symptomatology as well as the type and dose of medication were comparable at both time points. We conclude that most aspects of cognitive function remain relatively stable in EOS patients during adolescence; there is evidence for deterioration in immediate verbal memory and attention while speed of information processing may show improvement.
Neurocognitive Profile in Adolescents with Early-Onset Schizophrenia: Clinical Correlates
Background: Neurocognitive impairments have been documented in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset by age 18) and are important treatment targets. Information concerning the severity, pattern, and clinical correlates of these deficits in EOS remains limited. Methods: Tests assessing motor skills, attention, memory, visuospatial abilities and executive functioning were administered to 54 clinically stabilized adolescents with EOS and 52 age-and sex-matched healthy controls. Childhood-onset patients (onset by age 13) were compared to those with an adolescent onset of illness. Patients' neurocognitive profiles were compared to those of controls. Relationships between neurocognitive deficits and demographic and clinical characteristics were explored. Results: Neurocognitive profiles did not differ between childhood-and adolescent-onset participants. Patients showed a generalized neurocognitive deficit of 2.0 SDs compared to controls, with relative deficit in executive functioning and relative sparing of language and visuospatial abilities. Degree of generalized neurocognitive impairment was associated with premorbid adjustment and negative symptom severity (Adjusted R 2 ϭ .39). Conclusions: Results document both a significant generalized deficit and a relative deficit of executive functioning in adolescents with EOS. The overall pattern is similar to that observed in severely ill first-episode adult patients. The impairments across multiple neurocognitive domains suggest widespread brain dysfunction in EOS.
The authors examined performance on the Continuous Performance Test-Identical Pairs bnumbersQ task in adolescents with schizophrenia (n = 59) and healthy controls (n = 55). Adjusting for an estimate of premorbid intelligence and socioeconomic status, patients performed worse than normal controls on all three dV conditions (2-digit, 3-digit, 4-digit). However, there was a significant group-by-age-by-condition interaction ( F[4, 100] = 4.69, p b .01) indicating an interaction between development and disease state. At the simplest level of the task (2-digit) the difference between patients with schizophrenia and controls was evident at all ages; while for the more difficult levels of the task (3-digit, 4-digit), differences between groups gradually increased across the tested age span (10 to 20 years of age). Premorbid social isolation was associated with worse attentional performance in patients, suggesting a relationship and continuity with negative symptoms. These data suggest that attentional differences in adolescents with schizophrenia are better captured by different tasks at different ages. The discrepant findings of attentional impairments reported in the literature for adolescents with schizophrenia could reflect the underlying etiological complexity of the disorder that may have a variable impact on involved brain regions and neurocognitive functioning. D
Contrasts in memory functions between adolescents with schizophrenia or ADHD
Neuropsychologia, 1999
Previous research on memory and schizophrenia has relied on a limited number of global memory measures instead of a comprehensive assessment of various memory components. In addition, little eort has been directed at examining memory functioning in patients with early-onset schizophrenia. Published research often lacks a relevant neuropsychiatric comparison group to control for attention diculties. Patients with Attention De®cit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were included in the present study for this purpose. To our knowledge, a direct comparison of the two patient groups on memory functions has never been made. In the present study, both adolescents with schizophrenia and adolescents with ADHD were compared on a comprehensive memory test battery. Nineteen adolescents with schizophrenia were compared to 20 ADHD adolescents and 30 normally functioning adolescents on measures of working memory and long-term episodic memory, including tests of verbal and visual memory, free recall and recognition memory. The performance of the adolescents with schizophrenia was impaired as compared to the normal group on most of the memory measures. They performed signi®cantly more poorly than the adolescents with ADHD on the visual memory tests. The ADHD group scored more impaired than the schizophrenia group on working memory tests with focus on distractibility. The ®ndings suggest a general memory de®cit among adolescents with schizophrenia related to both verbal and visual material. Impairment on the measures of visual memory is speci®c to schizophrenia and does not characterise the ADHD subjects. #
Cognitive Functions in Children of Persons with Schizophrenia
Journal of depression & anxiety, 2020
Background: Cognitive deficits are a central feature of schizophrenia and occur in high-risk relatives of the patients. Aim: We aimed to investigate whether children at-risk for schizophrenia also present neurocognitive deficits that are commonly observed in patients with schizophrenia. Settings and Design: In a cross-sectional study, we assessed neurocognitive functioning in 15 at–risk children of schizophrenia patients with an equal number of healthy controls. Materials and Methods: Offspring at-risk were compared with the control group on the measures of intelligence, verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed (assessed with Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth (India Edition), verbal working memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) and executive function (Maze test). Results: Participants in the study group obtained significantly lesser scores, compared to those in the control group, on all neurocognitive measures including verbal...
The Maudsley Early Onset Schizophrenia Study: Cognitive Function Over a 4-Year Follow-Up Period
Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2007
Generalized cognitive deficits have been consistently reported in adolescents with early onset schizophrenia (EOS; defined as onset before the age of 17 years). The impact on cognition of potential interactions between disease pathology and brain maturation remains unclear. We therefore compared cognitive function between 20 EOS patients and 20 healthy controls matched on age, gender, and parental socioeconomic status at 2 time points, when aged 15.58 (2.27) and after a mean interval of 4 6 1.08 years when aged 19.46 (2.21) years. Repeated measures analyses revealed no differences between patients and controls in the degree of change over this time period in general intellectual function and planning ability as measured by the Tower of London. There was deterioration in the verbal memory and attentional control index scores from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised but relative improvement in Part A of the Trail Making Test. Patients' level of symptomatology as well as the type and dose of medication were comparable at both time points. We conclude that most aspects of cognitive function remain relatively stable in EOS patients during adolescence; there is evidence for deterioration in immediate verbal memory and attention while speed of information processing may show improvement.