Testing Vulnerability Models: Stability of Potential Vulnerability Indicators Across Clinical State

Effects of Atypical Neuroleptics on Sustained Attention Deficits in Schizophrenia A Trial of Risperidone Versus Haloperidol

“…Another study using the CPT-X increased the perceptual loads by degrading the stimuli and reported a significant difference in patients' performance assessed during active psychotic state and that assessed during remission state . When a working memory component was added to the task, as in the case of CPT-AX used in Nuechterlein et al (1991) and another two studies (Epstein et al 1996;Finkelstein et al 1997) as well as the undegraded CPT in this study, and the case of CPT-Identical Pairs used in Cornblatt et al (1997), no changes in CPT performance were noted. Because the degraded session used in this study included not only a sensory-perceptual component but also a working memory component, it may make the task more effortful than the Degraded Stimulus CPT used in Nuechterlein et al (1991).…”

“…In contrast, if attention deficits in schizophrenia represent stable vulnerability indicators, one would expect CPT performance to be unchanged after effective neuroleptic treatment. Orzack et al (1967) have first reported that effective neuroleptic medication leads to improvement in both CPT performance and global symptoms in schizophrenic patients, and three subsequent studies with similar longitudinal designs that measured within-subject changes have reported similar findings (Mirsky et al 1984;Nuechterlein et al 1991;Spohn et al 1977). However, four other longitudinal studies have failed to detect any change in CPT performance in schizophrenic patients in response to neuroleptics (Cornblatt et al 1997;Epstein et al 1996;Erickson et al 1984;Finkelstein et al 1997).…”

Social cognition mediates illness-related and cognitive influences on social function in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

“…The AIPSS has been shown to have adequate psychometric properties. fluency (category instances), 20 verbal memory (logical memory subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised: LMI, LMII), 21 Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), 22 visual memory (Rey Complex figure), 23 working memory (Letter-Number Span), 24 Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), 25 attention (Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test; DS-CPT), 26 early information-processing (Span of Apprehension; SPAN), 27 visual-constructional ability (copy of the Rey Complex figure), visuomotor sequencing (Trails A and Trails B), 28 psychomotor speed (Grooved Pegboard) 29 and the Stroop. 30 We transformed cognitive performance variables to adjust for violations of normality.…”

The relevance of recent neuropsychological and neurophysiological studies for social psychiatry

“…Esso non e stato adeguatamente studiato nei soggetti a rischio e i pochi dati disponibili suggeriscono che la compromissione non si riscontra nei familiari di primo grado e nei gemelli monozigoti non affetti (Goldberg, 1985;Goldberg et al, 1995). Altri deficit, invece, quale la compromissione dell'attenzione sostenuta, sono considerati trait markers e fattori di vulnerabilita, essendo stati riscontrati in paziepti schizofrenici prima dello scompen'so 'psicotico, nella fase acuta della sintomatologia e dopo la remissione dei sintomi, nonche nei familiari di primo grado non affetti da sindromi psicotiche (Asarnow & MacCrimmon, 1978;Erlenmeyer-Kimling & Cornblatt, 1987;Nuechterlein et al, 1991).…”