Neuropsychology of schizophrenia

Research of neuropsychological deficits found in schizophrenic patients has advanced considerably in the last two decades. However, the actual condition of neuropsychology does not allow us to obtain a consistent, valid and differential neuropsychological profile of this illness. The pattern detected most frequently in the context of a clinic judgement includes an inespecific mnesic deficit, attentional disturbances that can manifest themselves as a low ability to process the external stimuli or as an incapacity to identify and inhibit the irrelevant stimuli, apraxic disfunctions and impairment in executive or "prefrontal" functions, which include poor ability to make plans, social judgement altered, lack of insight and anhedonia. On the other hand, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the verbal fluency task with phonetic key (FAS), are probably the most useful neuropsychological tests with a high sensibility to detect the cognitive impairment present in schizophrenic patients.