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Immediate versus sustained processing in schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2002

RUTH SALO
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, California
AVISHAI HENIK
Affiliation:
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
THOMAS E. NORDAHL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, California Center for Functional Imaging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
LYNN C. ROBERTSON
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, California Veterans Administration Martinez, California

Abstract

A Stroop negative priming (NP) task was used to assess immediate selective attention and priming in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Subject groups were comprised of 12 state hospital inpatients (41.8 ± 7.5 years of age), 11 outpatients (39.8 ± 7.5 years of age), and 16 controls (36.4 ± 11.7 years of age). Compared with the control group and the outpatients, inpatients failed to exhibit NP [F(2,36) = 6.09, p < .01], despite exhibiting equivalent Stroop RT interference (p > .05). Error rates did not differ significantly between the 3 groups. Although medication types and dosages were similar between the 2 patient groups, length of illness was significantly longer in the inpatients (19.8 years) than in the outpatients (12.4 years; p < .05). Positive symptom ratings were also significantly higher in the inpatients. The finding of reduced NP in the state hospital patients appears to be related to severity of symptomatology and chronicity of illness. (JINS, 2002, 8, 794–803.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2002 The International Neuropsychological Society

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