Chapter 7 - Cognition and functional status in adult and older patients with schizophrenia

Summary

Although the symptom profile of schizophrenia is diverse across patients and over the course of the illness, most patients experience cognitive and functional decline and impairments in everyday living skills and social functioning. This chapter begins by discussing normative age-related changes in cognition followed by a short discussion of memory impairments, dementia, and aging. The incidence of visual impairments such as cataracts and macular degeneration increases with age. Age is the greatest risk factor for pathological neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) refers to changes in memory or other cognitive domains that are reported by the patient or collateral informant, and it is confirmed by neuropsychological testing. The performance of psychiatrically healthy adults aged 70 years and older was superior to the performance of the youngest patients with schizophrenia on measures of working and episodic memory, executive function, and psychomotor speed.