Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: a life span perspective.

Cognitive impairment is a core Feature oF schizophrenia. The evolution oF cognitive impairment over the liFe span may clariFy whether schizophrenia is best characterized as a neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative disorder. Children who later develop schizophrenia show delayed language acquisition, intellectual impairment, and poorer academic perFormance than peers. These premorbid intellectual deFicits may worsen beFore illness onset. Although patients show pervasive intellectual impairment at First episode, this deFicit does not appear to worsen through middle age. Gerontological patients remain poorly characterized, but a subset oF chronic, institutionalized patients may show Further intellectual and Functional decline in old age. From a cognitive perspective, schizophrenia may be best viewed as a neurodevelopmental disorder initiated by genetic or environmental Factors in the prenatal period. These early changes may contribute to premorbid cognitive impairment and to subsequent disturbances oF neural connectivity and transmission.