Cognitive deficits in clinical and familial high risk groups for psychosis are common as in first episode schizophrenia.

The aim of this study is to compare the neurocognitive functions in individuals with clinical or genetic risk for psychosis, in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) and in healthy controls. We compared cognitive functions of 52 individuals at ultra high risk (UHR) for psychosis, 53 patients with FES, their 30 healthy siblings (familial high risk group, FHR) and controls. FES group had worse neuropsychological performance than controls in all of the domains. UHR group had worse performance in verbal learning, attention, and working memory than controls. Additionally, individuals at UHR with familial risk had worse performance on executive functions than the control group. FES group had lower global composite score than UHR group, and worse sustained attention than FHR group. FHR group had worse performance on executive functions and attention than controls. We found no difference in cognitive performances of UHR and FHR groups. Cognitive deficits in UHR and FHR groups were largely similar to those with FES. These findings support that cognitive deficits may arise before the first episode of schizophrenia.