Chunk #10 — DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN NEUROLEPTIC-NAÏVE PATIENTS WITH RECENT-ONSET SCHIZOPHRENIA — Relationship between symptom dimensions of schizophrenia and executive dysfunction
Generalized neuropsychological deficits as well as region- specific impairments localizable to the prefrontal and temporo-limbic regions have been demonstrated in neuroleptic-naive patients suffering from the first episode of schizophrenia.[27–29] Executive dysfunction is seen not only in schizophrenia subjects,[3031] but also in other psychoses such as bipolar disorder.[32] We assessed executive function in 30 neuroleptic-naïve, recent-onset schizophrenia subjects using a hypothesis-driven battery of neuropsychological tests (comprising Verbal Fluency Test, Delayed Response Learning Test, Stroop Color Word Naming Test, and Trail Making Tests A and B) with a specific objective to correlate the neuropsychological performance scores with the psychopathological dimension scores on reality distortion, psychomotor poverty, and disorganization.[18] The relationship between psychopathological dimension scores and neuropsychological test scores was assessed using Pearson's product moment correlation with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Reality distortion dimension was found to be not significantly associated with impairment of performance on any of the frontal lobe tests administered. Disorganization dimension was positively correlated with the time taken for the Trail Making B test, indicating impairment in inhibition of an inappropriate response, which in turn denotes orbitofrontal dysfunction.
