Cognitive changes with aging in schizophrenia

Hospitalized, male chronic schizophrenics (N = 21) in their late sixties performed as well as those in their early forties when normal age effects were determined on measures of verbal fluency, picture anomaly recognition, tapping speed, and maze learning. The findings contraindicated the Kraepelinian view of schizophrenia as a deteriorative disorder and were more in accord with recent longitudinal evidence of clinical stabilization and amelioration of disruptive symptoms in chronic schizophrenia.