Neuropsychological evidence supporting a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia: a longitudinal study

• Published in: Schizophrenia research Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 289 - 298
• Main Authors: Censits, David M., Daniel Ragland, J., Gur, Ruben C., Gur, Raquel E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 11.04.1997; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Female; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Matched-Pair Analysis; Medical sciences; Neurodevelopment; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuropsychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - etiology; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Schizophrenia - therapy; Schizophrenic Psychology; Neurodevelopment; Schizophrenia; Neuropsychology; Human; Psychosis; Symptomatology; Cognitive disorder; Etiology; Follow up study; Central nervous system; Evolution; Models; Developmental disorder; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/S0920-9964(96)00091-6

The stability of neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia and its relationship to clinical change was contrasted between 60 patients with schizophrenia (30 first-episode, 30 previously treated) and 38 healthy controls using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and clinical scales administered at intake and at a 19-month follow-up. Consistent with the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia, patients demonstrated deficits in cognitive performance at initial testing and did not show decline at follow-up. There were no differences in neuropsychological performance over time between first-episode and previously treated patients, nor between male and female patients or controls. As expected, patients improved clinically with treatment with respect to both positive and negative symptoms. First-episode patients improved more on the positive symptoms of hallucination and delusion; male and female patients showed equivalent clinical improvement. Clinical improvement correlated positively with neuropsychological change, with improved negative symptomatology accounting for most of the significant correlations.