Neurocognition, Symptomatology, and Functional Skills in Older Alcohol-Abusing Schizophrenia Patients

Deficits in neurocognitive functioning are common to both schizophrenia and alcoholism. Recent studies suggest that neurocognitive functioning is the most significant predictor of social-adaptive functioning in schizophrenia. Cognitive impairment induced by alcoholism may result in more im-paired functional outcome for comorbid patients. Past re-search examining alcohol-abusing schizophrenia patients has not examined correlates with functional outcome and has generally been limited to relatively younger patients. This study examined neurocognitive functioning and its cor-relates in alcohol-abusing schizophrenia patients between the ages of 40 and 80. Outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ; n = 17) or both schizophrenia and alcohol abuse or de-pendence (SZ + ETOH; n = 18) were tested on a neurocog-nitive battery, rated for symptomatology, and assessed for functional abilities. The results suggest that alcohol abuse in schizophrenia is associated with more impaired function-ing across many domains, including memory impairment, negative andgeneral psychopathology symptoms, and adap-tive functions. The only significant predictor of impaired functional status in the overall sample and the SZ + ETOH group was neurocognitive functioning