ATTENTIONAL DYSFUNCTIONS IN NEUROLEPTIC-NAIVE AND NEUROLEPTIC-WITHDRAWN SCHIZOPHRENIC-PATIENTS AND THEIR SIBLINGS

This study examined attentional deficits in 44 schizophrenic patients (24 neuroleptic-naive and 20 neuroleptic-withdrawn patients) across ch anges in medication status and clinical state using a 1-9 continuous p erformance test (CPT) with distracters. Patients' attentional selectiv ity scores (A') were unchanged from the off-medication to on-medicatio n testings (on average, 6 months later), despite significant improveme nt in both positive and negative symptoms. Both patient groups had sig nificantly lower A' scores than 44 matched healthy controls at each te sting. The nonschizophrenic siblings (n = 15) of these patients made s ignificantly more errors of omission and commission than healthy contr ols. The results suggest that attentional deficits, as measured by thi s CPT, appear to measure stable markers of schizophrenia that may be a ssociated with genetic vulnerability to the illness.