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Pre-morbid IQ in mental disorders: a Danish draft-board study of 7486 psychiatric patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2009

A. Urfer-Parnas ,
E. Lykke Mortensen ,
D. Sæbye  and
J. Parnas
A. Urfer-Parnas*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark
E. Lykke Mortensen
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health and Centre for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
D. Sæbye
Affiliation:
Institute of Preventive Medicine, Centre for Health and Society, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
J. Parnas*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
*
*Address for correspondence: A. Urfer-Parnas, M.D.,Department of Psychiatry, Hvidovre Hospital, Brøndbyøstervej 160, 2605 Brøndby, Denmark. (Email: [email protected])
*Address for correspondence: A. Urfer-Parnas, M.D.,Department of Psychiatry, Hvidovre Hospital, Brøndbyøstervej 160, 2605 Brøndby, Denmark. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Longitudinal studies indicate that future schizophrenia patients exhibit lower IQ than healthy controls. Recent studies suggest that future patients with other mental illnesses obtain lower pre-morbid IQ. The aims of this study were to compare pre-morbid IQ among five diagnostic categories and normal controls, to examine the distribution of pre-morbid IQ, and to investigate the relationship between pre-morbid IQ and risk of mental illness.

Method

A total of 7486 individuals hospitalized with psychiatric disease and 20 531 controls. IQ was measured at the draft board and hospital diagnoses [schizophrenia (Sz), non-schizophrenic, non-affective psychoses (NSAP), affective (AD), personality (PD) and neurotic/stress disorders (ND)] were followed up to ages 43–54 years. Individuals hospitalized ⩽1 year after appearing before the draft board were excluded.

Results

All future patients obtained significantly lower pre-morbid IQ than controls (3–7 IQ points), AD had the highest IQ and PD the lowest. In each diagnostic category, decreasing IQ was associated with an increasing risk of becoming a patient [odds ratios (ORs) 0.5–2.5 over the full IQ spectrum]. IQ distributions was nearly normal and uni-modal.

Conclusions

IQ deficits in each diagnostic category may reflect different functional patterns and temporal vicissitudes of the specific pathogenetic processes involved in different mental disorders.

Keywords

Affective disordercognitive functionintelligencepersonality disorderschizophrenia
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , April 2010 , pp. 547 - 556
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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