Correlation between performance on the Continuous Performance Test and economic costs in patients with schizophrenia

The aim of the present study was to determine whether a relationship existed between the performance on the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and the economic costs of schizophrenic patients in Taiwan. Forty-six schizophrenic patients and their caregivers were enrolled. The CPT is a vigilance task requiring the monitoring of rapid information processing and the detection of briefly presented target stimuli. Each patients undertook two CPT sections: the unmasked task and the masked task. Economic Cost Questionnaires were used for assessing the direct and indirect costs of the illness. The patients' performance on the masked version of the CPT correlated significantly with the indirect costs, although there was no significant relationship between CPT scores and direct costs. Schizophrenic patients with more severely impaired sustained attention, particularly as measured by CPT, may incur higher indirect costs.