Early treatment-induced improvement of negative symptoms predicts cognitive functioning in treatment-naive first episode schizophrenia: a 2-year followup.
- Schuepbach D Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, PO Box 68, CH-8029 Zurich, Switzerland. daniel.schuepbach@puk.zh.ch
- Hill SK
- Sanders RD
- Hell D
- Keshavan MS
- Sweeney JA
- 2005-06-16
Published in:
- Schizophrenia bulletin. - 2004
Adolescent
Adult
Antipsychotic Agents
Chlorpromazine
Cognition Disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Male
Memory Disorders
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Predictive Value of Tests
Schizophrenia
Severity of Illness Index
Time Factors
English
Studying neuroleptic-naive first episode schizophrenia is a strategy for investigating clinical and neuropsychological abnormalities at a very early phase of the disease without confounding influences of illness duration and medication effects. We examined the clinical and neuropsychological time course over 2 years in 32 neuroleptic-naive first episode patients (20 males, 12 females) and 21 healthy individuals with similar sociodemographic characteristics. Early treatment-induced reduction of negative symptoms predicted superior cognitive performance throughout followup in the domains of verbal fluency, attention, and non-verbal learning and memory. There were no associations between psychotic or disorganized symptoms and cognitive variables. These findings suggest an important relationship between treatment efficacy of antipsychotic medication and the longer term course of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- bronze
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a007136
- PMID 15957199
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/84925
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