NO DEFICIT IN WISCONSIN-CARD-SORTING-TEST-PERFORMANCE OF SCHIZOPHRENIC-PATIENTS FIRST-DEGREE RELATIVES

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was administered to 92 schizoph renic patients, 25 first-degree relatives and 60 normal subjects in or der to investigate whether this task could be considered a trait marke r of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The schizophrenic patients perfor med significantly worse than either their relatives or normal subjects , but unaffected relatives did not differ from controls. Our results s uggest that WCST performance is more likely a feature inherent to the disease process rather than an index of the genetic susceptibility to the illness. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.