Thought disturbance differences between male and female late-life schizophrenia patients and its relationship to quality of life

In 1896, Emil Kraepelin coined the term "dementia praecox" and suggested these individuals had a brain disease, producing peculiar disturbances in thinking and volition, which eventually progressed to a dementia in later life. Alternatively, Bleuler (1911/1950) observed various clinical presentations and outcomes; hence renaming the disorder "the group of schizophrenias". Among the symptoms of schizophrenia, thought disturbance has been found to be a critical feature of this illness and central to the disease process. Over the years thought disturbance has been the focus of several studies, typically in younger schizophrenia patients. It has previously been found that male and female schizophrenia patients display differences in thought disturbance. This work, however, has not been demonstrated in older schizophrenia patients and relate their performance to a measure of quality of life. The aim of the current study was to examine thought disturbance performance between male and female middle-aged and elderly schizophrenia patients. The primary hypotheses of the study were that males would display more thought disturbance and a poorer quality of life than females, relative to normal comparison participants. Among the older group of schizophrenia patients, it was also predicted that there would be a significant negative relationship between thought disturbance and quality of life.;Participants were compared on measures of thought disturbance, which included the Rorschach-derived Ego Impairment Index (EII), Scale For the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC), and the Scale For the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). In addition, a general health-related measure of quality of well-being, measures of cognitive functioning and premorbid intellectual ability, and a scale which assesses negative symptoms were also administered.;The results of this study demonstrated that late-life schizophrenia patients performed significantly worse than their normal counterparts on two out of the three measures of thought disturbance (TLC Factor 1, TLC Factor 2, and the SAPS). With regard to gender differences, there were no differences noted on the TLC and SAPS; however there was a trend for females to have higher EII scores than males. The quality of well-being measure revealed similar levels of impairment in quality of life among male and female schizophrenia patients relative to the normal comparison group.;The overall findings of this study suggest that the gender differences found earlier in adulthood may attenuate with age. Secondly, the present findings do not support Kraepelin's original description of "dementia praecox". The schizophrenia patients in the current study were found to display mild levels of thought disturbance and functional impairment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).