Objective: The purpose of this study was to verify whether male patients with psychosis have greater neurocognitive impairment than female patients at illness onset.
Method: Participants with a first episode of psychosis (74 women/86 men) and healthy controls (62 women/97 men) were assessed with an extensive neuropsychological test battery.
Results: Women in the clinical group were older at illness onset and had achieved higher formal education than men. This trend was the same for the control group. The patient group presented with lower premorbid IQ compared to healthy controls, and performed below for most neuropsychological tests. Women scored higher than men on a test of verbal memory, whereas men scored higher than women on a test of reaction time, visual memory, and a planning task. There were no group-by-sex interactions for any of the neuropsychological tests.
Conclusion: The present study shows that at the onset of psychosis there are no differences between males and females in neuropsychological performance. The differential pattern of cognitive performance observed is similar to that in healthy males and females. Furthermore, females with a late onset of psychosis may represent a subgroup with specific visuospatial and problem solving impairments.
Keywords: BPRS; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; CASH; CDSS; CI; CPT; Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia; Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History; Confidence interval; Continuous Performance Test; DAS; DSM; DUI; DUP; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Disability Assessment Scale; Duration of untreated illness; Duration of untreated psychosis; FEP; First episode psychosis; GCF; GNI; GP; General neurocognitive impairment; Global cognitive functioning; Grooved Pegboard; IQ; Intelligence quotient; MANCOVA; Multiple analysis of covariance; NOS; Neuropsychology; Not otherwise specified; OR; Odds ratio; PAFIP; Program of attention and intervention first-episode psychosis; Psychosis; RAVLT; Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test; SANS; SAPS; SCID; SD; SPSS; Scale for the Assessment of Negative symptoms; Scale for the Assessment of Positive symptoms; Sex; Standard deviation; Statistical Package for Social Science; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM; TMT; ToL; Tower of London Test; Trail Making Test; YMRS; Young Mania Rating Scale.
© 2013.