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Neuropsychological impairment with schizophrenia vs. acute and chronic cerebral lesions
Author(s) -
Heaton Robert K.,
Vogt Arthur T.,
Hoehn Margaret M.,
Lewis James A.,
Crowley Thomas J.,
Stallings Mary Ann
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197901)35:1<46::aid-jclp2270350104>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - neuropsychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychosis , abnormality , psychology , neuropsychological test , psychiatry , neuropsychological assessment , differential diagnosis , medicine , cognition , pathology
Performed detailed neuropsychological evaluations with 25 recently hospitalized schizophrenics in whom systematic neurologic workups had failed to reveal CNS disease. Efforts were made to minimize possible effects of drug‐induced extrapyramidal symptoms on test performance. Although the schizophrenics showed some neuropsychological impairment relative to 25 normals, their deficits were not as severe as those of patients known to have either acute or chronic brain disorders ( N = 25). The diagnostic accuracy achieved by the tests supports their use in short‐term treatment facilities when the differential diagnosis includes schizophrenia and brain disorder, especially acute brain disorder. Schizophrenics' neuropsychological impairment was more correlated with degree of EEG abnormality than with degree of psychosis, which suggests a possible organic basis for the deficits that they showed on testing.