Neuropsychological functioning in first-episode schizophrenia

Eugenia Kravariti, Kevin Morgan, Paul Fearon, Jolanta W. Zanelli, Julia M. Lappin, Paola Dazzan, Craig Morgan, Gillian A. Doody, Glynn Harrison, Peter B. Jones, Robin M. Murray, Abraham Reichenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
199 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background Identifying neurocognitive subtypes in schizophrenia may help establish neurobiologically meaningful subtypes of the disorder, but is frequently confounded by differences in intellectual function between individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Aims To examine neuropsychological performance in individuals with epidemiologically based, first-onset schizophrenia and intellectually matched controls. Method Using standard IQ and reading tests, we examined the proportions of 101 people with epidemiologically derived, first-onset schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and 317 community controls, falling into three a priori defined intellectual categories: 'stable good', 'deteriorated poor' and I stable poor'. Neuropsychological function was compared between intellectually matched participants with schizophrenia and control subgroups. Results Multiple deficits in executive function, processing speed and verbal memory, but not visual/spatial perception/memory, were detected in all participant groups with schizophrenia compared with controls. The average effect size across the affected domains ranged from small to medium to large in the stable good, deteriorated poor and stable poor subgroups of participants with schizophrenia, respectively. Conclusions Compared with intellectually matched controls, people with epidemiologically derived, first-onset schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder show multiple deficits in executive function, processing speed and verbal memory.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)336 - 345
Number of pages10
JournalBritish Journal of Psychiatry
Volume195
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 2 Jan 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Neuropsychological functioning in first-episode schizophrenia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this