The Correlation Between Psychiatric Symptoms And Memory In Chronic Schizophrenia Patients

PrefaceSchizophrenia is a chronic disorder which has been proved to be involved withmany brain regions. According to the heterogeneity of clinical manifestation, theresearchers proposed dimension model, positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Atthe beginning of 1970's, Gallhofer discovered that except for positive symptoms andnegative symptoms, there was the cognitive dysfunction.Schizophrenic cognitive dysfunction includes: attention disturbance, memorydysfunction, abstract thinking disturbance, integrated information disturbance. Mostdata support that cognitive dysfunctions are correlated with negative symptoms, andsuppose a latent brain impairment of them. By two years' follow-up, Addington foundcognitive dysfunctions of patients were correlated with negative symptoms but not withpositive symptoms, and cognitive dysfunctions improved along with the ameliorationof negative symptoms. While Goldberg et al found that there was not significantcorrelation between cognitive dysfunctions of patients and negative symptoms, orpositive symptoms. There is not a single neuropsychological test which can evaluatethe cognitive ftinction totally. This research will utilize memory as an index to reflectthe cognitive function, and test the psychiatric symptoms and memory of chronicschizophrenia, in order to explore the correlation between the psychiatric symptomsand memory.Although psychological test is the most frequently used research methodevaluating cognitive functions, there are some factors effecting its application, such asexperiences of interviewers, interviewees' cooperation, etc. Minnesota MultiphasicPersonality Inventory (MMPI) is a commonly used psychological test in domestic and abroad, which superficial validity is implied. Some researches improved that MMPIcan reflect different psychological states. MMPI is utilized to evaluate the mentalsymptoms. A result of foreign research found some scales in MMPI can reflectcognitive dysfunction. This research will study the correlate between MMPI of chronicschizophrenic patients and their memory to explore whether MMPI reflect the memorydysfunction of schizophrenic patients.Methods76 chronic schizophrenic patients, who are consistent with schizophrenicdiagnostic criteria in DSM-â…£, composed a patient group. They were assessed withClinical Memory Scale, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and MMPI.60 health adults without cognitive dysfunction composed a control group, and areassessed with Clinical Memory Scale and MMPI.Results1. Compared with control group, memory fraction decreased significantly inpatient group(p＜0.05); memory fraction of patients with negative symptoms weresignificantly smaller than patients with positive symptoms(p＜0.05).2. There wasn't correlation between positive symptoms of chronic schizophreniaand memory test result. Negative symptoms was significant correlated with memoryquotient,directed memory,free recall of picture (p＜0.05).3. Scales of Pt,Sc,D₁,D₄,Sc_1B,Sc_2A,Sc_2B,Sc_2C etc, in MMPI, is significantlycorrelated with memory evaluation, in the patient group(p＜0.05).ConclusionMemory of chronic schizophrenic patients is significantly lower than health adult;the memory of patients with negative symptoms is impaired more seriously than thepatients with positive symptoms; memory impairment is correlated with negativesymptoms, while is not correlated with positive symptoms, and general psychopathologic symptoms. Scales of Pt,Sc,D₁,D₄,Sc_1B,Sc_2A,Sc_2B,Sc_2C et al,in MMPI, may reflect the memory impairment of schizophrenia.