Neuropsychological deficits and response to cognitive therapy in a schizophrenic sample

Research into the neuropsychology of schizophrenia has been predominantly of two types. One has attempted to find differential patterns of performance on neuropsychological tests between schizophrenic and head injured participants. The second has attempted to characterize brain functioning in schizophrenic patients and to examine implications for behavior. This study examined the neuropsychological functioning of schizophrenic participants and attempted to relate this functioning to outcome in a cognitive therapy program. Functioning in several cognitive domains and pre-morbid functioning was studied to examine the relationship with social skills as measured by the Assessment of Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills (AIPSS). The specific hypotheses of the study were: (1) The factor structure of the measures includes a general neuropsychological factor, with additional factors of memory, attention, concept formation, and perceptual functioning and the AIPSS factor structure has two factors; (2) Neuropsychological functioning, and AIPSS scores (pre-treatment) predict post treatment and change score AIPSS functioning better than pre-treatment AIPSS scores alone; (3) The neuropsychological factors significantly predict the AIPSS factors; (4) A canonical analysis corroborates these factor structures and predictions; (5) Neuropsychological variables and AIPSS scores increase from pre- to post-treatment more in the experimental group than in the control group. Results provide support for a two factor structure for the neuropsychological variables and one for the AIPSS. Pre-treatment memory functioning predicted pre-, post-treatment, and change in social skills over time. The results of the ANOVAs indicate no differential changes between the cognitive and supportive groups over time on the AIPSS, but results indicate a trend toward improvement in social skills for all participants from pre-testing to post-testing