Cognitive functioning in first-episode schizophrenia

Objective: To compare the cognitive functioning of a sample of patients experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia with that of patients with an established schizophrenia illness. Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Setting: The Calgary Early Psychosis Treatment and Prevention Program and an outpatient clinic in a department of psychiatry at a university-affiliated hospital. Participants: One hundred and eleven patients who were experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia and 76 outpatients with an established schizophrenia illness. Measures: The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenia was administered to all subjects to determine levels of positive and negative symptoms. Executive functioning, information processing, visual memory, and immediate and delayed verbal memory were assessed. Results: There were limited differences between the 2 groups in terms of cognitive functioning. Although the first-episode patients demonstrated generally superior scores, their performance was impaired. Conclusions: These results support the findings of previous studies suggesting that first-episode patients demonstrate cognitive impairments similar to those of patients with an established schizophrenia illness.