THE RELATIONSHIP OF INFORMATION-PROCESSING DEFICITS AND CLINICAL SYMPTOMS IN SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER

Individuals with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) are thought to be phenotypically related to individuals with schizophrenia. This ass umption is partially supported by the fact that SPD patients have defi cits on biological markers similar to those found in schizophrenia, Vi sual backward masking (VBM) performance and critical stimulus duration (CSD), measures of information processing found to be abnormal in sch izophrenia patients, were assessed in 14 SPD and 21 comparison subject s. There was no significant difference between groups in VBM performan ce; however; there were significant correlations between VBM deficits and the number of SPD symptoms, as well as elevated scores on the Ego Impairment Index (EII). Additionally there was a trend (p = .056) towa rd elevations in CSD in the SPD versus the comparison group and CSD in flation appears to be most prominent in individuals with a greater num ber of social deficit symptoms and elevated physical anhedonia scores. These findings suggest an important relationship between symptoms of SPD and neurophysiologic deficits. (C) 1996 Society of Biological Psyc hiatry.