[Frontal lobe cognition disorders in 42 schizophrenic patients compared with 19 normal probands]

In schizophrenia, the hypothesis of frontal dysfunctions is sustained by various clinical, neuroradiological and neuropsychological observations. We have studied the degree of frontal cognitive impairment in 42 schizophrenic patients according to the DSM IV as compared to 19 normal subjects. Furthermore, the performances of the different tests were connected with the age, the duration of the disease, the severity of the illness (measured by the PANSS scale) and the incidence of the treatments. The neuropsychological tests used in this study were the D48, the Wisconsin card sorting test, the Stroop color and word test, the word fluency and a target detection test. The results obtained from this study agree with the occurrence of frontal cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. Such impairments are increased with the age and the duration of the disease.