The Maudsley early onset schizophrenia study: cognitive function in adolescents with recent onset schizophrenia

Neuropsychological function has been little studied early in the course of adolescent onset schizophrenia. The present study investigated cognitive function in adolescents with recent onset schizophrenia (n=20) and healthy controls (n=21), employing a comprehensive battery of intelligence, memory and executive function paradigms. Relative to the control group, the patients showed significant or near-significant deficits in more than half of the cognitive variables we examined. A substantial proportion of this broadly based neuropsychological deficit could be accounted for, at least in part, by a mild decrement in general intellectual ability. However, deficits in general and verbal memory remained highly significant after co-varying for IQ.