Neuropsychological functioning in inpatients with major depression or schizophrenia

Background: Studies that compare neuropsychological functioning in
inpatients with mood disorder or schizophrenia come to
heterogeneous results. This study aims at investigating the
question whether there are different neuropsychological test
profiles in stabilised post-acute inpatients with affective
disorders or schizophrenia. Method: We were interested in
evaluating impairment in specific areas of cognitive functioning in
patients with schizophrenia or depression. In clinical reality,
patients with depression and schizophrenia are often treated
together with little attention to their specific needs. 74 patients
with major depression and 38 patients with schizophrenia were
assessed in a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. All
patients were in a post-acute stage of their illness, i.e.
remission of acute symptoms. Results: In spite of a comparable mean
score of psychopathological symptoms in the Brief Psychiatric
Rating Scale-Expanded (BPRS-E) as well as in the Global Assessment
Functioning Scale (GAF), patients with depressive disorder showed
significantly better results in verbal and visual short-term
memory, verbal fluency, visual-motor coordination, information
processing in visual-verbal functioning and selective attention
compared to patients with schizophrenia. No significant differences
between both samples were found in practical reasoning, general
verbal abstraction, spatial-figural functioning, speed of cognitive
processing. Conclusions: These results show that there are
differences in scores in psychopathology (BPRS-E, GAF) in patients
with affective disorders or schizophrenia and different
neuropsychological test profiles in the post-acute stage of their
illness.