Neuropsychological Profile of Specific Executive Functions in Patients with Deficit and Non-deficit Schizophrenia

Abstract

Although it has been shown that there are more profound deficits present in the deficit schizophrenia (DS) patients compared with their non-deficit (NDS) counterparts, there still remain a few matters that require further investigation.

Aims

(1) Comparison of executive functions between the investigated groups; (2) determining the relationship between their particular aspects within the groups; and (3) drawing up their neuropsychological profile.

Methods

One hundred and forty-eight schizophrenia patients, divided into two groups: patients with DS (n = 70) and NDS (n = 78). Patients were matched for sex, age, number of years of education and their overall cognitive functioning. For the assessment of executive function, we used the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Trail Making Test (TMT), Verbal Fluency Test Phonemic (VFT P), Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT) and Go/No Go task (GNG).

Results

The DS patients compared with the NDS ones obtained lower scores in WCST and TMT (relative flexibility). We did not observe any inter-group differences in VFT P, SCWT (relative inhibition) or the GNG. In both patient groups, there appeared significant correlations between their WCST and TMT scores. The general neuropsychological profiles were similar in both groups. The DS patients exhibited slightly greater interference within concept formation and non-verbal cognitive flexibility. Such problems may therefore be specific to that particular subset of schizophrenia. Our results may be useful for the development of new rehabilitation activities, which may increase the chance of the patients’ better social functioning.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.