A comparison of cognitive function in patients with chronic schizophrenia and brain tumors.

Objective To investigate similarties and differences in some neuropsychological performances between patients with chronic schizophrenia and brain tumor in order to find the relationship between chronic schizophrenis and various lobes damage. Methods Thirty-nine patients with chronic schizophrenia, 88 with brain tumors and 30 healthy volunteers were examined on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Verbal Fluency Test (VFT) and Swoop Color and Word Test (CWT); the 88 patients with brain tumors 24 existed in the right frontal lobe, 24 in the left frontal lobe, 20 in the temporal lobe group and 20 in the parietal-occipital lobe. Results There are distinctive deficits in performances in each patient's group. All discussed items have no significant difference between chronic schizophrenia and right frontal lobe tumors( P 0.05) except the number of completed catalogues and all words. Conclusions The patients with chronic schizophrenia (negative type) and right frontal lobe tumor exhibit similar performance. These results suggest that organically pathogenic factors of schizophrenia (negative type) might involve in right frontal lobe.