Disorganization and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: independent symptom dimensions?

Cognitive deficits are increasingly considered as essential in schizophrenic disorders. Positive symptoms and cognitive deficits have been found to be independent, whereas negative symptoms show only weak correlations to cognitive impairment. However, the relationship to a third symptom dimension, d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience 2006-12, Vol.256 (8), p.532-540
Main Authors: Klingberg, Stefan, Wittorf, Andreas, Wiedemann, Georg
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis
Cognition Disorders - psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales - statistics & numerical data
Psychometrics
Psychotic Disorders - diagnosis
Psychotic Disorders - psychology
Schizophrenia, Disorganized - diagnosis
Schizophrenia, Disorganized - psychology
Statistics as Topic
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Cognitive deficits are increasingly considered as essential in schizophrenic disorders. Positive symptoms and cognitive deficits have been found to be independent, whereas negative symptoms show only weak correlations to cognitive impairment. However, the relationship to a third symptom dimension, disorganization, is yet unclear. In a sample of n = 151 schizophrenia inpatients (DSM-IV/SCID) we assessed cognitive impairment using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and symptoms of schizophrenia applying the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Factor analyses resulted in three neuropsychological (attention, memory, abstraction) and five symptom factor scores (negative, impulsiveness, positive, disorganization, depression). The disorganization factor did not correlate significantly with any of the neuropsychological factor scores. Even after controlling for different demographic and clinical variables partial correlation coefficients did not reach a significant level. Thus, we could not confirm the previously reported associations between disorganization and measures of cognitive impairment. Despite a considerable conceptual overlap between interview based symptom ratings and classic neuropsychological tests the empirical association is limited. Our results suggest that disorganization and cognitive impairment represent different symptom dimensions.
ISSN:0940-1334
1433-8491
DOI:10.1007/s00406-006-0704-0