Cognitive Deficits in Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia or Other Psychotic Disorders

Abstract

Introduction

Cognitive deficits in patients with psychotic disorders have been described both in literature and clinical practice.

Objectives/aims

Analysis of the cognitive deficits in patients with psychotic disorders.

Methods

Observation of 8 subjects performance on the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), by the consultation of their psychological assessment clinical files. Subjects are aged between 20 and 29 years old and diagnosed with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder.

Results

The analysis of the performance on the psychological tests indicated significant differences in the areas of remote memory, attention, calculation, immediate verbal memory, visual memory and non verbal reasoning. No significant differences in the areas of spatial and temporal orientation were observed.

Conclusions

This study confirms the presence of neuropsychological deficits in several areas of memory and non verbal reasoning ability of young patients with psychotic disorders. Neuropsychological rehabilitation is a key area of intervention in such disorders, considering the young age of these patients and the impact that these alterations can have on their social, educational and professional prospects.