CAN SELF-EXPERIENCED NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL DEFICITS INDICATE PROPENSITY TO SCHIZOPHRENIC PSYCHOSIS - RESULTS OF AN 8-YEAR PROSPECTIVE FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

We investigated the potential predictive value of early self-experienc ed neuropsychological deficits for the subsequent development of schiz ophrenia. We re-examined 96 patients diagnosed, according to the third revised Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-II I-R), with personality disorder or what were formerly called neurotic disorders, who had been examined for the presence of subjective experi ences of deficits with the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symp toms (BSABS), in order to determine whether they had undergone a trans ition to a schizophrenic disorder. Of these 96 patients, 78 (81%) had displayed basic symptoms at the initial assessment. After an average f ollow-up period of about 8 years, more than half of the patients (58%) had developed schizophrenia according to DSM-III-R criteria or define d by the presence of at least one component of the ninth version of th e Present State Examination (PSE9) nuclear syndrome. In 77% the outcom e, transition or absence of transition to schizophrenia was correctly predicted by the earlier presence or absence of self-experienced distu rbances of thought, speech, memory, perception and action. Development of a schizophrenic psychosis was predicted with a specificity of 45% and a sensitivity of 100%. These findings suggest that certain self-ex perienced neuropsychological deficits are able to indicate a propensit y to a schizophrenic psychosis. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.