Cognitive function and biological correlates of cognitive performance in schizotypal personality disorder

There is evidence that some schizophrenic patients have deficits on tests of cognitive function, particularly tests of executive function, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Trail-making Test, Part B. This study was conducted to determine the generalizability of these findings across the schizophrenia spectrum to schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). Forty DSM-III SPD patients, 56 nonschizophrenia-related other personality disorder (OPD) patients, and 32 normal volunteers from two medical centers performed tests of executive function such as the WCST, Trail-making Part B, Stroop Word-Color Test, and Verbal Fluency, as well as tests of more general intellectual functioning such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Revised Vocabulary and Block Design subtests, and Trail-making Part A. SPD patients performed more poorly on the WCST and on Trail-making Part B than did OPD patients or normal subjects; the groups did not differ on tests of general intellectual functioning. SPD patients may share some of the cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia.