| Objective: To study the cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia, their siblings and normal controls. At the same time to explore the possibility of cognitive function disorder to be the index of the genetic endophenotype for schizophrenia.Methods: The cognitive function of 100 schizophrenia patients (patient group), 100 their healthy siblings (sibling group) and 80 normal controls (normal control group) were assessed with TMT, WCST, SCWT and VFT. The data was analyzed by statistical software to compare the difference of each measuring scale scores between groups. The evaluation work was executed by the professional survey crews.Results: To TMT, for the finish time of TMT-A, patient group is longer than normal control group, and there is no significant difference between sibling group and normal control group. For TMT-B finish time, patient group and sibling group are both longer than normal control group. To WCST, the persistent error numbers of patient group and sibling group are both higher than those of normal control group. To VFT, there is no significant difference among three groups. To Stroop color-word test, the scores of not only Stroop-C test but also of Stroop-CW test, patient group and sibling group are both higher than normal control group.Conclusions: Since TMT-B finish time of patient group and sibling group are both higher than that of normal control group, it is possible that the capabilities of patients'siblings to maintain attention and cognitive objective conversion are different to those of the normal people. To WCST, the persistent error numbers of patient group and sibling group are both higher than those of normal control group, which explains that the schizophrenic siblings can't switch or adjust the action according to the corresponding stimulation as flexibly as the normal control people, indicating a declining flexibility to resolve the problems. The finish time of Stroop test in patient group and sibling group are both longer than those in normal control group, which indicate that the siblings'execution control capabilities are decrease to some extent. The cognitive function disorder can be the index of the genetic endophenotype for schizophrenia. |
