SPAN OF APPREHENSION DEFICITS IN OLDER OUTPATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Performance on the span of apprehension task, a well-studied informati on processing task in schizophrenia research, was examined in 11 schiz ophrenia patients and 11 normal comparison participants, all over the age of 45 years. Subjects detected 'T' and 'F' targets in briefly-hash ed arrays of 1, 6, and 12 letters on the span task. Consistent with pr eviously reported findings in younger schizophrenia patients, the olde r patients detected significantly fewer targets in the larger (12-lett er), but not smaller (1-, or 6-letter), arrays. The older schizophreni a patients also showed significantly slower reaction times in all arra y-size conditions. Neither age of onset nor duration of illness was si gnificantly correlated with span task performance. The characteristic span of apprehension task deficit found in the older schizophrenia pat ients suggests that late-life schizophrenia shares a common cognitive impairment with childhood and young adulthood schizophrenia, and provi des supportive evidence for a possible stable vulnerability trait defi cit in schizophrenia that is independent of age of onset and duration of illness.