Cognitive and functional changes with aging in schizophrenia

The variation in functional outcome in schizophrenia appears to be exaggera ted in late life, The cognitive and functional deficits commonly seen in yo unger schizophrenic patients appear to worsen in some cases in late life, w hile others patients appear to have a stable course of illness without func tional decline, and still other patients have been reported to have essenti ally no residual symptoms in their later years. Cognitive and functional de ficits appear to worsen more significantly in patients with a lifetime cour se of severe functional deficit. Despite the profound functional and cognit ive deficits in these patients, neuropathologic studies have found no evide nce of typical causes of severe cognitive impairments. This paper reviews t he current findings on cognitive and functional changes in aging in schizop hrenia, with a specific focus on patients with a poor lifetime functional o utcome, Biol Psychiatry 1999;46:921-928. (C) 1999 Society of Biological Psy chiatry.