Sensorimotor functions and cognitive disturbance in psychiatric patients.

The authors studied 109 consecutive admissions to an acute psychiatric unit in a general hospital to determine the relationship of specific sensorimotor impairments to cognitive disturbance. The results indicated a strong but not exclusive correlation between neurological impairment and thought disorder as well as between neurological impairment and schizophrenia. The theoretical and etiological implications are discussed, as well as the relationship of these findings to other variables.