COGNITIVE AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS IN SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS, WHILE THE FIRST EPISODE

• Main Authors: A EBRAHIMI, SEYED GHAFOUR MOUSAVI, R SAMOUEI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2003-12-01
• Series: Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
• Subjects: schizophrenia, cognitive and neuropsychological function, WAlS, R
• Online Access: http://journals.mui.ac.ir/jrms/article/view/2923

Introduction: It is assumed that the process of schizophrenia effect on patient"s cognitive functions. The aim of this study was to examine and to compare cognitive profile of patients with that of control group.
 Methods: 40 patients with schizophrenia were selected from Isfahan Noor Hospital. 40 non-patients as control group were selected and matched on the base of age, sex, education, economic status. Cognitive functions of two groups were assessed by WAlS-R.
 Results: Results show that schizophrenic patients appear at a lower level of IQ than control group. Nonverbal IQ was more impaired than the other kind of IQ in patients. Cognitive profile analysis reveals that patients had low scores on all of the WAlS-R subscles except information and word subscales.
 Discussion: These findings show that schizophrenic patients in the first episode of theire illness reveal a remarkable impairment on inteligence performance. Cognitive profile analysis indicates that schizophrenic patients performer significatly at a lower level in comparison with control group, in: abstraction, visual - special perception, verbal and non-verbal conceptualization, social judgment, attention, motor-visual organization and mental flexibility.