Schizotypal personality questionnaire and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in a population of DSM-III-R schizophrenic patients and control subjects

Phenomenological, biological, genetic, treatment-response, and outcome data support a link between schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) and schizophrenia. Furthermore, SPD and normal schizotypy also seem connected, although the relationship can at times be ambiguous. In this regard, this study was conducted to test the hypothesis of a possible association between neurocognitive performance evaluated by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and schizotypal personality traits evaluated by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) in a nonclinical sample and a sample of schizophrenic patients. The main finding of the study was that WCST performance was correlated with SPQ (total and subscale) scores in the control group; on the contrary, in the patients, the relationship between WCST and SPQ scores was weaker. Taken together, our results seem to support the hypothesis that different cognitive aspects (i.e., elementary WCST subcomponent scores) correlate differentially with some SPQ schizotypal traits in a group of nonclinical subjects. This report underlines the relevance of studying normal subjects within the brain-behavior paradigm to highlight the brain-behavior relationship in the mental illness. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.