Gender differences in cognition in schizophrenia (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Schizophrenia is devastating neuropsychiatric disorder that has no clearly identified etiology. The subtypes of schizophrenia are distinguished by the prevalent symptomatology. The aim of this study was to determine gender related differences in demographic and clinical manifestations in patients suffering from various subtypes of schizophrenia. Methods: A longitudinal, prospective,original,clinical investigation first in our local area, with application of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I) was used in this work. The study included 121 patients during five years period. Patients were recruited as consecutive admissions to the Psychiatric clinic, from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly Sarajevo region. Results: The study was conducted on a group of schizophrenic patients which consisted of 52.1% male and 47.9% female patients. Average duration of the episode was about a month. Majority of patients (male) were in the group of disorganized (hebephrenic) schizophrenia. The duration of current psychotic episode was similar in all three groups regarding subtypes of schizophrenia. Psychotic episodes appear equally in both gender (higher in disorganized group) with a statistically significant difference between all groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Male group patients showed tendency to be younger than women. Most of the schizophrenic individuals start to suffer from this disease between age of 20 and 39 years. Male group patients suffered mostly of disorganized (hebephrenic) type of schizophrenia. Duration of psychotic episode was proportionally the same in both groups while in male group the highest number of episodes was found in group of disorganized schizophrenia.
Sex differences in neuropsychological functioning among schizophrenia patients
Objectives: Evidence from the literature addressing sex differences in cognition in schizo-phrenia remains equivocal, with some researchers suggesting that male schizophrenia patients are more impaired than female subjects, while others report no signifi cant sex differences in cognitive functioning. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the differential pattern of cognitive performance observed in healthy men and women is preserved in male and female schizophrenia patients. Method: Ninety-six schizophrenia patients (56 men) were compared with 62 age-and gender-ratio matched healthy controls (31 men), on a battery of neuropsychological tests that assessed basic cognitive abilities: attention, working memory, abstraction, inhibition, fl uency, verbal learning and memory, visual memory, visuospatial skills, and psychomotor speed. Results: As a group, schizophrenia patients were signifi cantly impaired in each of the cognitive domains assessed, with the exception of psychomotor speed. The effect of sex was signifi cant for verbal learning and memory, wherein women outperformed men. No signifi cant group × sex interactions were found in any cognitive domains, indicating that the female advantage typically observed in verbal learning and memory remained the same in the schizophrenia patients. Conclusion: The degree of cognitive impairment is the same for male and female schizo-phrenia patients. Those sex differences found among the patients were typical of the healthy population as well. Therefore, differential decrements in basic cognitive domains do not appear to account for the favourable course of schizophrenia in women relative to men.
Current outcome in schizophrenia: women vs men
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1986
ABSTRACT: This article reviews the 1980's literature on gender differences in schizophrenia outcome. Neuroleptic response, long-term course, and housing, appear to be superior in women. Mortality ratios are advantageous to schizophrenic men. After menopause, women may require higher neuroleptic doses than men and are more at risk for severe tardive dyskinesia. The antidopaminergic effects of estrogens appear to be responsible for some of the outcome differences.
Sex-specific differences in cognitive functioning among schizophrenic patients
Psychiatria Danubina, 2013
Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are regarded by many psychiatrist as an important symptom, which requires appropriate treatment and rehabilitation. There are different conditions, which may have an influence on cognitive impairment in schizophrenic patients. One the factors differentiating subgroups of schizophrenic patients when neuropsychological functioning is analyzed is sex. This Review was focused on cognitive functioning of schizophrenic patients of different sexes. In order to achieve this result PubMed was searched using following terms: cognitive functions, schizophrenia, gender differences, sex hormones, memory, attention, neuropsychological, psychopatological symptoms. Most of the analyzed papers reflecting the cognitive differences between men and women suffering from schizophrenia postulate a worse performance in neuropsychological test by male patients. However according to some authors there are no gender differences in cognitive functioning in schizophrenic pati...
Gender differences in poor outcome patients with lifelong schizophrenia
2001
Gender effects have been reported quite consistently in schizophrenia, with male patients having an earlier age of onset, poorer functional outcome, greater negative symptoms and cognitive impairment, and less severe positive symptoms. Because age of onset, cognitive impairments, and negative symptoms are all correlated with poorer functional status, it is not clear if previously reported gender differences in symptoms are just recapturing gender differences in functional outcome. In this study, 205 geriatric patients with lifelong poor-outcome schizophrenia (43% male) were examined for the severity of schizophrenic symptoms, cognitive impairments, and specific deficits in adaptive skills, as well as for demographic differences such as age at first psychiatric admission, premorbid education, and current treatment status. Previously reported gender differences were replicated in these patients with a uniformly poor functional outcome, with male patients having more severe negative symptoms and an earlier age of first psychiatric admission. No differences in cognitive functioning or specific functional deficits were found, however. These findings suggest that negative symptom severity is greater in male patients regardless of functional outcome and that the association of cognitive deficits with gender may be found only in patients with better functional outcome. The study of gender-related differences in brain structure or function and their interaction with overall course of illness might help understand these differences in symptom presentation.
Neuropsychological Differentiation of Chronic Schizophrenia
International Journal of Neuroscience, 1993
Four groups of 20 each (chronic brain-damaged schizophrenics, chronic non-brain-damaged schizo phrenics, chronic non-brain-damaged with ~acute~ exacerbation, and control subjects) were individually administered Form I of the Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). Control subjects scored significantly lower than all clinical groups on all scales except for the chronic non-brain-damaged schizo phrenics on the Reading Scale. 'Acute~ schizophrenics scored higher on Motor, Visual, Receptive Speech, Intellectual Processes, Pathognomonic, Right Hemisphere and Profile Elevations scales than the other clinical groups. Chronic brain-damaged schizophrenics scored significantly higher than chronic non brain-damaged schizophrenics on the Profile Elevation scale. To examine the possibility that LNNB performance of the schizophrenic groups may have been related to neuroleptic medication. analyses were completed on the relationship between medication levels and LNNB scores. These results suggested that while the three clinical groups differed in their chlorpromazine equivalents (CPZE), LNNB scores were not related to CPZE dosage.
Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2008
This longitudinal study was designed to provide data on sex differences in the course of illness in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Ninety-seven participants (43 women and 54 men) were assessed during index hospitalization when they were in the acute phase of illness, and then reassessed prospectively at 6 consecutive followups over a 20 year period. Patients were evaluated by a series of standardized measures on many aspects of illness including the presence of psychosis, global outcome, and rate of recovery. When women were compared to men in this sample, the data demonstrated a lower percentage of psychotic activity for women over the course of illness (significant at the 7.5 and 20 year followups), and a significant improvement in psychotic activity over 20 years for women (p<.05), but not for men. Additionally, women showed significantly better global functioning (p<.05) at 3 of the 6 followups (the 2, 7.5, and 10-year followups). Significantly higher percentages (p<.05) of women were in recovery at 2 of the 6 followup years (the 2 and 10year followups). Cumulatively, 61% of the women with schizophrenia showed a period of recovery at some point during the 20 year period, compared to 41% of the men. The sex difference patterns were similar for patients with schizophrenia and for those with other types of psychotic disorders. Sex differences in this sample were specifically not attributable to differences in age of onset or premorbid developmental achievements.
Schizophrenia Research, 1997
To investigate gender differences in neuropsychological (NP) functioning in first episode (FE) schizophrenia, consecutively recruited patients with FE schizophrenia (37 males, 29 females) and a subsample of these patients (20 males, 20 females), individually matched for gender, age, and education to healthy controls (20 males, 20 females) were compared on a battery of standardized neuropsychological tests. Women performed better than men in tests of verbal memory and learning, and men performed better than women in spatial organization. However, no differences were present between schizophrenic patients and controls, except that male and female schizophrenic patients showed the most pronounced impairment in visual motor processing, attention and verbal memory and learning. Our data suggest that gender does not appear markedly to modify the cognitive impairment characteristic of schizophrenia. However, they underline the necessity of controlling confounding factors on NP performance such as gender and education.