• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.191-201
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• 2006

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the cognitive functions would be correlated with psychotic symptoms and whether antipsychotic treatments would affect the cognitive functions after 8 weeks. Methods : The thirty-five schizophrenic patients were conducted in this study. The psychopathology was measured using PANSS. The memory function, executive function, and sustained attention were measured using Memory Assessment Scale(MAS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST), and Vigilance(VIG) and Cognitrone(COG) in Vienna Test System. After 8 weeks of antipsychotic treatment, we retested the cognitive tests. Results : 1) The cognitive tests after the 8 week's treatment showed significant improvements in memory and executive function in the schizophrenic patients. On the other side, sustained attention did not show improvement. 2) The change of PANSS were correlated with perseverative response, perseverative error and total correct in WCST at baseline. WCST scores at baseline were correlated with negative symptoms, but not positive ones. Conclusion : These study suggests that 1) the impaired sustained attention could be a vulnerability marker in schizophrenia, 2) memory & executive function deficit could be reversible after treatment, and 3) medication might have a benefit in improving the cognitive functions in schizophrenia. Furthermore, the data supports that the better premorbid executive function was, the more favorable was the treatment response in schizophrenic patients. Finally, this study indicates that executive function might be an index of treatment improvement.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.310-319
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• 1997

This study investigated regional blood flow changes of frontal, temporal, and basal ganglia in eleven schizophrenic patients on DSM-IV criteria to examine the relationship between rCBF and clinical improvement of symptoms. Single-photon emission computed tomography imaging with $^{99m}Tc$-HMPAO was peformed in baseline and sixth weeks after the treatment, and concurrently psychopathology was assessed by PANSS. Antipsychotics wash-out period was more than 2 weeks, and three patient were drug naive. All patients were finally divided into two groups, the improved or not improved. We examined the difference of the amount of rCBF changes between two groups. Finally, frontal activity shows no significant difference between two groups but both groups show decreased frontal blood flow after antipsychotic treatment. However, the change of right temporal rCBF had positive correlation with the change of the total PANSS score, and the change of left temporal lobe activity was greater in the improved group than in the not improved group. Our results suggest that the temporal lobe activity has relation to the underlying schizophrenic symptoms.