Smooth pursuit and saccadic abnormalities in first-episode schizophrenia

• Published in: Psychological medicine 1998-05, Vol.28 (3), p.685-692
• Main Authors: HUTTON, S. B., CRAWFORD, T. J., PURI, B. K., DUNCAN, L.-J., CHAPMAN, M., KENNARD, C., BARNES, T. R. E., JOYCE, E. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use; Antipsychotic drugs; Biological and medical sciences; Chronic Disease; Eye movements; Factors; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Oculomotor Nerve - drug effects; Oculomotor Nerve - physiopathology; Patients; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Pursuit, Smooth - drug effects; Pursuit, Smooth - physiology; Reaction Time - drug effects; Reaction Time - physiology; Reflex - drug effects; Reflex - physiology; Saccades - drug effects; Saccades - physiology; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenia - drug therapy; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Schizophrenic Psychology
• ISSN: 0033-2917; 1469-8978
• DOI: 10.1017/S0033291798006722

Background. Previous studies of oculomotor dysfunction in schizophrenia have tended to concentrate on abnormalities of smooth pursuit eye tracking in chronic medicated patients. We report the results of a study of smooth pursuit, reflexive and antisaccade performance in drug naive and antipsychotic treated first-episode schizophrenic patients. Methods. Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements were recorded in 36 first-episode schizophrenic patients and 36 controls matched for age and estimated IQ. The schizophrenic patients were divided into drug-naive (N=17) and antipsychotic treated groups (N=19). Results. Smooth pursuit velocity gain was significantly lower than controls only in the drug-naive patients. The treated patients did not differ significantly from either the controls or the untreated group. In an antisaccade paradigm both treated and drug-naive schizophrenic patients demonstrated an increased number of errors, but only drug-naive patients also demonstrated an increased latency in initiating correct antisaccades. Conclusions. These impairments are unlikely to be due to a generalized deficit in oculomotor function in the schizophrenic groups, as there were no differences between the groups in saccadic metrics on a reflexive saccade task. The results show that both smooth pursuit and saccadic abnormalities are present at the onset of schizophrenia and are integral to the disorder.