TY - JOUR
T1 - A neuropsychological study of early onset schizophrenia
AU - Hoff, Anne L.
AU - Harris, Debra
AU - Faustman, William O.
AU - Beal, Michael
AU - DeVilliers, Diana
AU - Mone, Robert D.
AU - Moses, James A.
AU - Csernansky, John G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the following individuals for their involvement in the data collection for this study: Mark Gustafson, Scott Espinoza, Beryl Nielson, Linda Lucas, Mary Wieneke, Paul Miller, Martin Costa, Richard Journey, and Kyungtak Minn. We also wish to thank the staff of the Biological Psychiatry Research Unit at Napa State Hospital for their involvement in the study and our collaborators in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University, Kelvin Lim and Edith Sullivan, for their comments on the manuscript. Statistical consultation was provided by Sue Thiemann, M.S. This study was supported by the Department of Mental Health, State of California, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and MH 30854.
PY - 1996/5
Y1 - 1996/5
N2 - Characterizing a pattern of cognitive dysfunction in early onset schizophrenic patients may illuminate neurodevelopmental contributions to the illness. A cohort of chronically institutionalized schizophrenic patients with a variable range of age of onset (range 7-29 years) was administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests that included the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery. After statistical control of age, parental socioeconomic class (SES) effects, and thorazine equivalents, age of illness onset was positively correlated with performance on measures of motor ability, perceptual motor and pure motor speed, receptive and expressive speech, and overall cognition function, and inversely related to severity of negative symptoms; that is, earlier age of onset was associated with worse cognitive performance and an increase in negative symptoms. Tnis study demonstrates that an early age of onset in schizophrenic illness is associated with impairment on tasks which involve motor and language abilities, functions linked to the frontal, temporal, and subcortical regions of the brain. This association is not due to the effects of medication, negative symptoms, or duration of illness.
AB - Characterizing a pattern of cognitive dysfunction in early onset schizophrenic patients may illuminate neurodevelopmental contributions to the illness. A cohort of chronically institutionalized schizophrenic patients with a variable range of age of onset (range 7-29 years) was administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests that included the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery. After statistical control of age, parental socioeconomic class (SES) effects, and thorazine equivalents, age of illness onset was positively correlated with performance on measures of motor ability, perceptual motor and pure motor speed, receptive and expressive speech, and overall cognition function, and inversely related to severity of negative symptoms; that is, earlier age of onset was associated with worse cognitive performance and an increase in negative symptoms. Tnis study demonstrates that an early age of onset in schizophrenic illness is associated with impairment on tasks which involve motor and language abilities, functions linked to the frontal, temporal, and subcortical regions of the brain. This association is not due to the effects of medication, negative symptoms, or duration of illness.
KW - early onset
KW - neuropsychology
KW - schizophrenia
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U2 - 10.1016/0920-9964(95)00065-8
DO - 10.1016/0920-9964(95)00065-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 8794490
AN - SCOPUS:0030152377
VL - 20
SP - 21
EP - 28
JO - Schizophrenia Research
JF - Schizophrenia Research
SN - 0920-9964
IS - 1-2
ER -
