306-325

Study of cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia

• Μποζίκας, Βασίλης
• Κοσμίδου, Μαίρη
• Καράβατος, Αθανάσιος

Cognitive dysfunction is a core and enduring feature of schizophrenia concerning nearly every facet of cognition. Despite the fact that cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are the most consistent findings in the literature, controversies still exist with respect to the magnitude, profile and course of these deficits, as well as their relationship with psychopathology. In the present paper, we review a series of studies that were conducted with the purpose of investigating the neuropsychological profile of patients with schizophrenia, the identification of a group of patients who could be characterized as cognitively normal, the relationship of psychopathology and cognitive deficits, potential cognitive differences on cognitive functioning between institutionalized and not institutionalized patients, and the course of cognitive impairments. We found a selective deficit in verbal memory and executive functions in the context of a background of generalized cognitive impairment. All patients performed one standard deviation below the mean scores of healthy individuals in at least one of the examined cognitive domains. Severity of cognitive and negative symptoms correlated with deficits on executive functions, semantic memory, and verbal memory, while positive symptoms correlated only with semantic memory. Overall, our findings suggest the involvement of frontal and left temporal lobe dysfunction in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Institutionalized patients with schizophrenia presented more severe cognitive deficits as compared with patients living in the community between episodes, and similar to those of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, our results did not suggest further decline in cognitive status in patients with schizophrenia, whether living in the community or institutionalized. In the latter group, however, the interaction of age and illness was complex. Future studies should investigate the social cognition of patients with schizophrenia, its role in interpersonal difficulties and its relationship to the basic neurocognitive deficits that these patients present.

• Psychology
• Basic Medicine

• Cognition
• Psychiatry and the humanities
• Memory

cognition, psychopathology, schizophrenia

Issues in neuropsychology