The neuropsychology of schizophrenia: relations with clinical and neurobiological dimensions

It is now beyond question that the symptoms observed in schizophrenia include a range of cognitive neuropsychological deficits that may be more enduring than psychotic symptoms (Cassens et al. 1990; Goldberg et al. 1993) Goldberg et al. (1993) found that a group of patients treated with clozapine whose psychotic symptoms improved significantly over a 15 month study period showed no improvement in cognitive impairments. He argued that the enduring cognitive deficits are responsible for failure of patients to rehabilitate socially even when psychotic symptoms are in remission. Clearly an understanding of neuropsychological deficits is Important from a clinical as well as a theoretical viewpoint. There is, however, still much debate about the nature of these deficits and how they related to the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and also to the neurobiological substrate of this disorder.