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Sex-specific cognitive abnormalities in early-onset psychosis
Miguel Ruiz-Veguilla1, Josefa Moreno-Granados1, Maria D Salcedo-Marin1
1Grupo Psicosis y Neurodesarrollo, Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBIS), Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Universidad de Sevilla, Unidad de Hospitalizacion de Salud Mental, Sevilla, Spain.
Revista Brasileira De Psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999)
|March 15, 2017
Summary
Sex differences in cognitive function emerge in early-onset psychosis. While female controls outperformed males in working memory and auditory attention, these differences vanished in the psychosis group, indicating sex-modulated cognitive profiles.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Brain maturation exhibits sex-specific trajectories, with girls showing earlier prefrontal cortex maturation.
- While adult sex differences in schizophrenia are well-documented, research on psychosis in children and adolescents remains limited.
- Understanding cognitive sex differences in early-onset psychosis is crucial for tailored interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sex-based differences in cognitive functions, including memory, attention, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility, in children and adolescents with first-episode psychosis.
- To compare cognitive performance between boys and girls experiencing their first psychotic episode.
- To explore potential sex-modulated cognitive profiles in early-onset psychosis.
Main Methods:
- A comparative study involving 80 boys and girls diagnosed with first-episode psychosis.
- Inclusion of a control group for comparison.
- Assessment of key cognitive domains: verbal and visual memory, verbal working memory, auditory attention, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility.
Main Results:
- Significant interactions between group (psychosis vs. control) and sex were observed in verbal working memory (p = 0.04) and auditory attention (p = 0.01).
- In the control group, females demonstrated superior working memory (p = 0.01) and auditory attention (p = 0.001) compared to males.
- No statistically significant sex differences in working memory (p = 0.91) or auditory attention (p = 0.93) were found within the psychosis group.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest the presence of sex-modulated cognitive profiles at the initial presentation of early-onset psychosis.
- Cognitive performance differences between sexes observed in healthy controls may be altered or absent in individuals with psychosis.
- These results highlight the importance of considering sex as a biological variable in the study and treatment of early-onset psychosis.
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