A study of sustained attention impairments in first-episode medication-naive schizophrenic patients

Abstract

Sustained attention impairment has been implicated in schizophrenia as a trait marker. Performance in first-episode medication-naȉve patients has seldom been reported. We aim to measure sustained attention impairment in a sample of first-episode patients and to follow the changes that occur after treatment with conventional anti-psychotic medication. We employed a modified “3-7” version of the Continuous Performance Test in 56 first-episode DSM-IV schizophrenic patients (mean age: 32.7 years). Thirty were medication- naȉve at the time of testing. The rest had been started on medication for less than a week. Their performance was compared with 64 normal controls. Patients were tested first at admission and then after the acute symptoms had been stabilized. We also explored the relationship between attention performance and clinical variables. Medication- naȉve first-episode patients made more commission and omission errors compared with controls (Mann-Whitley U tests, p , 0.001). After treatment, attention performance, specifically omission errors, improved. Correlation analyses suggested that attention performance was neither correlated with positive nor negative symptoms.