A study of executive and attentional function in patients with schizophrenia during episodic period.

Objective To explore the executive and attentional function of patients with schizophrenia in episodic period.Methods A total of 107 patients with schizophrenia and 67 normal controls were assessed with Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST) and Continue Performance Test(CPT) for executive and attention function.Results 1.Compared with the controls(total trials=65.1 25.0,perseverative errors=30.4 22.5,random errors=21.2±17.3,correct trials=25.0±0.0),total trials,perseverative errors and random errors(94.3±25.6,30.4±22.5,41.0±23.0) of patients were significantly higher(P= 0.00、P= 0.00、P= 0.00),correct trials(23.7±6.1) were significantly fewer(P=0.03),there was no significant deference in categories between patients(4.8±2.4) and controls(5.0±0.0)(p=0.46).2.The patients exhibited poorer performance in CPT2,CPT3 and CPT(6.5±2.9,8.5±3.3,25.0±6.6)than controls(8.9±2.0,10.6±0.7,30.4±2.7)(P= 0.00,P= 0.00,P= 0.00).There was no significant difference in CPT1 between patients(10.0±4.0) and controls(l0.8±0.6)(P=0.05).3.No significantl relations between perseverative errors and CPT1,CPT2,CPT3 and CPT were observed(r1=0.539,r2=0.149,r3=0.688,r=0.585,P0.05).Conclusion Patients with schizophrenia may have executive and attentional dysfunction,and there are no significant relation between them.