DISORDERED WATER HOMEOSTASIS AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

To investigate a possible association between disordered water homeost asis and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, neuropsychological tes ts were applied to 16 schizophrenic patients with severely deranged wa ter homeostasis and to 16 matched schizophrenic controls. The patients with disordered water homeostasis tended to obtain poorer scores than the controls throughout, the differences being statistically signific ant for two of the tests (Wechsler Memory Scale Visual Reproduction an d Trail Marking Test part A). These results were not ascribable to dif ferences in the duration of the illness, premorbid IQ, medication, or electroconvulsive therapy received, or prominence of any particular sy mptoms. The results suggest the co-existence of disordered water homeo stasis and cognitive impairment in a subset of schizophrenic patients.