Cognitive disturbances in schizophrenics: what are they, and what is their origin?

Cognitive disorders are neither a unique nor a constant phenomenon in schizophrenia. Among the dysfunctions that may be observed at times, primarily during acute phases and in patients with a non-paranoid symptomatology, certain disturbances in attention-focusing and information processing seem to be most conspicuous. Some of these cognitive dysfunctions may have been transmitted from parent(s) to the patient, either genetically or through simple forms of learning. the empirical evidence for this assumption is to be found in the fact that some of the same cognitive deficits as those found in schizophrenic patients also found in their first-degree relatives, although usually in a milder form. Other forms of cognitive dysfunction may have developed as complementary strategies in response to communication deviances and cognitive behavior found in their parents. A developmental model, in which genetic, physiological and environmental factors are included is described as a way of illustrating how predisposing factors, as well as intermediating and stress factors, contribute to the debut and maintenance of cognitive disorders in schizophrenics.