The Continuous Performance Test has been used for the last 40 years to measure sustained attention or vigilance in many different populations. Different versions of the test have been developed, but little is known about how similar these tests are, and to what extent performance on different versions of these tests overlaps. In order to examine convergence of the different versions of the CPT, three different CPTs were administered in both the Auditory and Visual Sensory Modalities. Subjects were selected from consecutive admissions to adolescent acute care units at a private psychiatric hospital (n=100). Auditory test modalities uniformly elicited poorer performance than visual tests, while each set of task demands consistently elicited differences in performance. Despite the high test-retest reliability of the individual subtests, the average correlation between tests was r=.42, with the average correlation between visual tests at r=.48 and the average correlation between the auditory tests was r=.45. The correlations within task demands across sensory modalities ranged from a low of.37 to a high of.52. Controlling for IQ did not influence the correlations to a substantial degree. These data suggest different versions of the CPT are correlated with each other at a level consistent with construct validity, but that they do not constitute alternate forms of the same test.

In this study, we investigated the treatment utility of the revision of Perry and Viglione's (1991) Rorschach Ego Impairment Index (EII-2) in a sample of 53 child psychiatric inpatients. Parent ratings of symptomatic functioning on the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders (DSMD; Naglieri, LeBuffe, & Pfeiffer, 1994) were obtained at admission, 30 days postdischarge, and 120 days postdischarge. EII-2 scores correlated with initial symptom elevations on the Critical Pathology at admission. EII-2 scores did not predict short-term response to treatment. However, EII-2 scores demonstrated moderate correlations with long-term outcome and relapse. EII-2 was related to prediction of worsening of symptoms between 30-day and 120-day follow-up as measured by Reliable Change Index scores that were computed for the Externalizing, Internalizing, Critical Pathology, and Total DSMD scales.

Substantial research has demonstrated that adults with schizophrenia display intellectual decline compared to their premorbid levels of functioning. Research of this type, however, is not as common in adolescents with psychotic disorders. Since many first-episode adolescents with psychotic disorders other than schizophrenia may eventually meet criteria for this diagnosis, we examined first admission adolescents with variable psychiatric diagnoses. In this study, current intellectual functioning was compared to estimated premorbid functioning (estimated with word recognition reading), and the difference between these scores was related to the number of indicators of psychosis that was present in each case. Subjects consisted of 513 inpatients, ranging in age from 13 to 17 years, who were admitted to the adolescent service of a private psychiatric hospital. Indicators of psychosis came from clinical diagnoses, self-report measures, and clinical rating scales. Across the entire sample of 513 subjects the greater the number of indicators of psychosis that was present, the greater the estimated premorbid/current intelligence quotient (IQ) discrepancy. Type of IQ test, differences in intellectual premorbid functioning, demographic variables, and type of treatment were all unassociated with risk for IQ discrepancy. Within the limitations of estimation of premorbid intellectual functioning, these data suggest that intellectual decline is present at the time of the first psychiatric admission in psychotic adolescent patients who do not necessarily meet diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and that this discrepancy is greater in patients with more indicators of psychosis.