BACKGROUND: Schizophrenic patients are known to have neuropsychological deficits including impaired verbal fluency, but it is not clear whether this latter deficit is: (a) a consequence of overall intellectual deficit; (b) shared with affective psychotic patients; or (c) shared by the relatives of schizophrenic patients; and (d) shared by the relatives of affective psychotic patients. METHODS: We administered Thurstone's Verbal Fluency Test to 45 schizophrenic patients and 72 of their relatives, and 30 affective psychotic patients and 53 of their relatives. Subjects were asked to generate as many words as possible beginning with the letters 'C' and 'S' and the total was taken as the dependent variable. Subjects also completed the National Adult Reading Test (NART) to provide a measure of (pre-morbid) IQ. RESULTS: Schizophrenic patients generated significantly fewer words than affective psychotic patients, however adjusting for NART this became non-significant. Schizophrenic (but not affective psychotic) patients generated significantly fewer words than their relatives; again adjusting for NART this became non-significant. Patients who had been exposed to obstetric complications (OC+) and those who had not (OC-) had similarly poor verbal fluency scores. Relatives of OC+ schizophrenic patients had superior verbal fluency than relatives of OC- schizophrenic patients and this remained significant after adjustment for NART. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that some families transmit impairment in verbal fluency as part of a pattern of lower overall IQ. However, in other families, relatives show largely normal neuropsychological function, and the poorer verbal performance of the schizophrenic member appears to have arisen secondary to his/her exposure to OCs.
BACKGROUND:Schizophrenicpatients are known to have neuropsychological deficits including impaired verbal fluency, but it is not clear whether this latter deficit is: (a) a consequence of overall intellectual deficit; (b) shared with affective psychoticpatients; or (c) shared by the relatives of schizophrenicpatients; and (d) shared by the relatives of affective psychoticpatients. METHODS: We administered Thurstone's Verbal Fluency Test to 45 schizophrenicpatients and 72 of their relatives, and 30 affective psychoticpatients and 53 of their relatives. Subjects were asked to generate as many words as possible beginning with the letters 'C' and 'S' and the total was taken as the dependent variable. Subjects also completed the National Adult Reading Test (NART) to provide a measure of (pre-morbid) IQ. RESULTS:Schizophrenicpatients generated significantly fewer words than affective psychoticpatients, however adjusting for NART this became non-significant. Schizophrenic (but not affective psychotic) patients generated significantly fewer words than their relatives; again adjusting for NART this became non-significant. Patients who had been exposed to obstetric complications (OC+) and those who had not (OC-) had similarly poor verbal fluency scores. Relatives of OC+ schizophrenicpatients had superior verbal fluency than relatives of OC- schizophrenicpatients and this remained significant after adjustment for NART. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that some families transmit impairment in verbal fluency as part of a pattern of lower overall IQ. However, in other families, relatives show largely normal neuropsychological function, and the poorer verbal performance of the schizophrenic member appears to have arisen secondary to his/her exposure to OCs.
Authors: Joachim Klosterkötter; Stephan Ruhrmann; Frauke Schultze-Lutter; Raimo K R Salokangas; Don Linszen; Max Birchwood; Georg Juckel; Anthony Morrison; José Luis Vázquèz-Barquero; Martin Hambrecht; Heinrich VON Reventlow Journal: World Psychiatry Date: 2005-10 Impact factor: 49.548
Authors: Matcheri S Keshavan; Shreedhar Kulkarni; Tejas Bhojraj; Alan Francis; Vaibhav Diwadkar; Debra M Montrose; Larry J Seidman; John Sweeney Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2010-03-09 Impact factor: 3.169
Authors: Tejas S Bhojraj; Alan N Francis; Rajaprabhakaran Rajarethinam; Shaun Eack; Shreedhar Kulkarni; Konasale M Prasad; Debra M Montrose; Diana Dworakowski; Vaibhav Diwadkar; Matcheri S Keshavan Journal: Schizophr Res Date: 2009-10-17 Impact factor: 4.939