NONVERBAL PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION OUTPUT DISABILITY AND SCHIZOPHRENIASPECTRUM SYMPTOMATOLOGY

PATIENTS with neurodevelopmental syndromes often receive numerous psyc hiatric diagnoses before the true nature of their disorder becomes app arent. We present a case in which the neuropsychological evaluation pl ayed a significant role in reconceptualizing a patient who had receive d, at various times, diagnoses of schizotypal personality disorder, sc hizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. The identification of speci fic cognitive deficits in executive functioning, perceptual organizati on, visual-spatial problem solving, and abstraction led to: 1) a diagn osis of nonverbal perceptual-organization-output disabled; 2) the adop tion of a rehabilitative treatment model; and 3) a greater understandi ng of the way in which the patient's social deficits represented adapt ations to her cognitive impairments. Research data and theoretical mod els relating cognitive deficits to psychiatric symptoms are discussed, and evidence is presented that schizophrenia and certain neurodevelop mental syndromes may share commonalities of pathophysiology. Diagnosti c issues arising from similarities between these disorders are discuss ed. It is suggested that direct comparisons between these groups can a id in clarifying the specific nature of cognitive deficit-symptom rela tionships, as well as leading to improvements in the understanding, di agnosis and treatment of schizophrenic and neurodevelopmental syndrome s.