Neuropsychological functioning among the nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenic patients: A 4-year follow-up study

In a prior study of 54 relatives of patients with schizophrenia and 72 cont rol participants, 3 neuropsychological functions met the criteria for risk indicators of the schizophrenia genotype: executive functioning, memory, an d auditory attention. In an assessment of the stability of these finding;, the sample was reexamined 4 year; after the initial assessment Three test s cores were found to differ between groups (Immediate Verbal Memory, Delayed Verbal Memory, and Dichotic Listening Digits Detected) or to show a signif icant Group X Gender interaction (immediate and delayed verbal and visual m emories). None of the test scores showed Group X Time interactions, suggest ing that the discriminating power of the tests was stable over time. Eviden ce for deficits in working memory and rule learning on the object alternati on test was also found. These results support the idea that neuropsychologi cal dysfunction among relatives of patients with schizophrenia is a stable trait caused by the familial predisposition to schizophrenia.