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Neurological soft signs in never‐treated schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Venkatasubramanian G.,
Latha V.,
Gangadhar B. N.,
Janakiramaiah N.,
Subbakrishna D. K.,
Jayakumar P. N.,
Keshavan M. S.
Publication year - 2003
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.1600-0447.2003.00113.x
Subject(s) - schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychiatry , pediatrics , psychology , psychosis , medicine , neurological examination
Objective: Studies of Neurological Soft Signs (NSS) in schizophrenia are confounded by handedness, inconsistent methodology, and prior treatment with neuroleptics. The study objective is to examine NSS in never‐treated schizophrenia. Method: We examined the NSS in treatment‐naïve schizophrenia patients ( n = 21) and age, sex, education, and handedness matched normal controls ( n = 21) using the modified Neurological Evaluation Scale with good inter‐rater reliability. Results: Schizophrenia patients had significantly more NSS than normals. No significant correlation was found between illness duration and NSS. Conclusion: Higher neurological signs in never‐treated patients and their lack of association with illness duration suggest neurodevelopmental etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia.