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Neuropsychological performance of psychotic patients in community care: results from the UK700 study
Author(s) -
Gilvarry C. M.,
Barber J. A.,
Van Os J.,
Murray R. M.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0447.2001.00103.x
Subject(s) - psychology , neuropsychology , cognition , confounding , psychiatry , clinical psychology , neuropsychological test , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , trail making test , psychosis , medicine
Objective: To compare cognitive performance in chronic schizophrenic and affective psychotic patients maintained in community care. Method: We studied a sample of community‐based patients ( n =707) with chronic psychotic disorders. Neuropsychological assessment was completed using the National Adult Reading Test (NART) and the Trail Making Test (TMT). Results: Affective psychotic patients had higher premorbid IQ than schizophrenic patients before adjustment for confounding factors ( P =0.03); however, after adjustment for ethnic group and social class this became non‐significant ( P =0.19). There were no significant differences between groups on the TMT, parts A or B. Conclusion: Unlike studies suggesting that schizophrenic patients are more cognitively impaired than affective psychotic patients, our study suggests a degree of cognitive homogeneity between those patients who develop a chronic illness. Measures of premorbid IQ suggest that this cognitive homogeneity exists prior to the onset of illness.