TY - JOUR
T1 - Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia
T2 - Specific relations to ventricular size and negative symptomatology
AU - Keilp, John G.
AU - Sweeney, John A.
AU - Jacobsen, Paul
AU - Solomon, Carla
AU - St.Louis, Leslie
AU - Deck, Michael
AU - Frances, Alien
AU - Mann, J. John
N1 - Funding Information:
From the Divisions of Psychology, Psychopharmacology, and the Department of Psychiatry, Payne Whitney Clinic. and the Department of Neuroradiology. New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY, Supported in part by awards from the National Institute of Health (BRSG SO7 RRO53%) and the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Program. Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U.S.A. to J.A.S. and C.S.; by support from the Steven Levy Foundation to A.F.; and by support from the Irma T. Hirsch1 Trust to J.J.M. Address reprint requests to John G. Keilp, Laboratory of Psychopharmacology, Department of Psychiatry. Payne Whitney Clinic, New York HospitaUComell Medical Center, New York, NY 10021, Received March 16, 1987: revised June 27, 1987.
PY - 1988/5
Y1 - 1988/5
N2 - A number of studies of schizophrenia have demonstrated associations between cognitive impairment and both cerebral ventricle size and negative symptomatology. The nature of these associations, however, have been obscured by interstudy differences in the assessment of cognitive functioning and by the lack of function-related specificity in measures of structural brain abnormality. In this study, 28 SCID-diagnosed chronic schizophrenic inpatients were administered a brief comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests, a computed tomography (CT) scan, and were rated for positive and negative symptomatology. Enlarged ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) of the anterior portion of the lateral ventricles, the frontal horns, was found to be related to deficits in general intellectual level, conceptual thinking, immediate verbal memory, and psychomotor speed. VBR of the more usually studied bodies of the lateral ventricles was associated only with deficits in verbal memory and motor speed. VBRs were unrelated to both positive and negative symptom measures in this sample. Results suggest that more widespread impairment of schizophrenics' cognitive functioning may be related to structural abnormality within the frontal lobes, complementing recent findings linking structural and metabolic abnormalities of this area of the brain to the disease itself.
AB - A number of studies of schizophrenia have demonstrated associations between cognitive impairment and both cerebral ventricle size and negative symptomatology. The nature of these associations, however, have been obscured by interstudy differences in the assessment of cognitive functioning and by the lack of function-related specificity in measures of structural brain abnormality. In this study, 28 SCID-diagnosed chronic schizophrenic inpatients were administered a brief comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests, a computed tomography (CT) scan, and were rated for positive and negative symptomatology. Enlarged ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) of the anterior portion of the lateral ventricles, the frontal horns, was found to be related to deficits in general intellectual level, conceptual thinking, immediate verbal memory, and psychomotor speed. VBR of the more usually studied bodies of the lateral ventricles was associated only with deficits in verbal memory and motor speed. VBRs were unrelated to both positive and negative symptom measures in this sample. Results suggest that more widespread impairment of schizophrenics' cognitive functioning may be related to structural abnormality within the frontal lobes, complementing recent findings linking structural and metabolic abnormalities of this area of the brain to the disease itself.
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U2 - 10.1016/0006-3223(88)90120-5
DO - 10.1016/0006-3223(88)90120-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 3370277
AN - SCOPUS:0023943007
SN - 0006-3223
VL - 24
SP - 47
EP - 55
JO - Biological Psychiatry
JF - Biological Psychiatry
IS - 1
ER -