Neuropsychological findings in recent onset schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder: a comparison study

Neurocognitive impairment is considered an essential symptom of schizophrenia, particularly in its early stages. Nonetheless, the neuropsychological features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) could cast doubt on the specificity of neurocognitive dysfunctions. The aim of this study is to determine whether neurocognitive deficits are specific to schizophrenia-spectrum conditions as compared to a similarly severe psychiatric illness like BPD.

A battery of neuropsychological tests was used to assess the abilities for attention, verbal memory and executive functions in a group of 34 borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients, 24 patients with first episode of a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (FEP) and a group of 19 controls.

ANOVA for multiple measures with subsequent post-hoc tests demonstrated significant effect sizes between controls and patients for all cognitive domains. However, the effect sizes of comparisons between both groups of patients were not significant.

Results show significant neuropsychological impairment in both disorders when compared with normal controls, but no specific pattern of neurocognitive deficits for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders was found.