Abstract
The prevalence of abnormal subjective experiences is high in schizophrenic patients. This study starts from the hypothesis that these subjective disorders are associated with cognitive disturbances. In order to test this hypothesis a study was carried out on 40 patients who were diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia according to RDC and DSM-III-R criteria. They were consecutively admitted due to a recrudescence of their symptomatology. Version 3 of the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire, adapted for Spanish by the authors, was used as an instrument for the assessment of subjective experiences. Eight patients refused to answer the questionnaire. A neuropsychological battery, including the Mini-Mental State, some subtests from the WAIS, Bender's visual-motor test, Rey's Complex Figure, and the Trail Making Test, was used. Frontal neurological signs were evaluated. The abnormal subjective experiences of schizophrenics presented a close association with neuropsychological disturbances and, to a lesser degree, of intensity with frontal neurological signs. Regression analyses by means of stepwise method and partial correlation analyses were undertaken. Many significant relationships between subjective experiences and cognitive disturbances persisted after controlling the influence of age, gender, education, lack of insight, neuroleptic doses, and biperidene doses.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Addington J, Addington D, Marticka-Tyndale E (1991) Cognitive functioning and positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 5:123–134
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (DSM-III-R), 3rd ed-revised. American Psychiatric Press, Washington DC
Andreasen NC, Olsen S (1982) Negative versus positive schizophrenia: definition and validation. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39: 789–794
Andreasen NC (1990) Positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. A critical reappraisal. Arch Gen Psychiatry 47:615–621
Bender L (1947) Instructions for the use of Visual Motor Gestalt Test. American Orthopsychiatric Association, New York. (El test guestáltico visuomotor de Bender. Uso y aplicaciones clínicas, 1974, Sexta edition, Paidos, Buenos Aires)
Benson DF, Stuss DT (1982) Motor abilities after frontal leukotomy. Neurology 32:1353–1357
Bitter I, Jaeger J, Agdeppa J, Volavka J (1989) Subjective symptoms: part of the negative syndrome of schizophrenia? Psychopharm Bull 25:180–185
Brenner HD (1989) The treatment of basic psuchological dysfunctions from a systemic point of view. Br J Psychiatry 155 (Suppl 5):74–82
Chapman J (1966) The early symptoms of schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 112:225–231
Christensen A (1978) Luria's neuropsychological investigation. led. Munksgaard, Copenhagen. (El diagnóstico neuropsicológico de Luria, ed Pablo del Río, Madrid)
Crow TJ (1980) Molecular pathology of schizophrenia: more than one disease. Br Med J 280:66–68
Cuesta MJ, Peralta V (1994): Lack of, insight in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 20(2):359–366
Cuesta MJ, Peralta V (1995) Cognitive disorders in the positive, negative and disorganization schizophrenic syndromes. Psychiatry Res 58:227–235
Cutting J, Dunne F (1989) Subjective experience of schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 15:217–231
Davis JM (1976) Comparative drugs and costs of antipsychotic medication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 33:858–861
De Leon J, Wilson WH, Simpson GM (1991) Negative symptoms, defect state and Huber's basic symptoms: a comparison of the concepts. Psychiatry Q 62:277–297
Ebel H, Gross G, Klosterkötter J, Huber G (1989) Basic symptoms in schizophrenic and affective psychoses. Psychopathology 22: 224–232
Faustman WO, Moses JA, Ringo DL, Newcomer JW (1991) Lefthandedness in male schizophrenic patients is associated with increased impairment on the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery. Biol Psychiatry 30:326–334
Goldberg E, Bilder R, Jaeger J (1987) The executive dyscontrol battery and its applications. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 9:38–48
Green M, Walker E (1985) Neuropsychological performance and positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. J Abnorm Psychol 94:460–469
Gross G, Huber G, Klosterkötter J et al. (1987) Bonner Skala für die Beurteilung von Basissymtomen. (SABS: Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms). Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Grove WM, Andreasen NC (1982) Simultaneous tests of many hypotheses in exploratory research. J Nerv Ment Dis 170(1):3–9
Guy W, Ban TA (1979) The AMDP System. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Hasse-Sender I, Gross G, Huber G et al. (1982) Testpsychologische Untersuchungen in Bassistadien und reinen Residualzuständen schizophrener Erkrankungen. Arch Psychiatr, Nervekr 231:235–249
Heinrichs DW, Buchanan RW (1988) Significance and meaning of neurological signs in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 145:11–18
Huber G (1957) Pneumenzephalographische und psychopathologische Bilder bei endogenen psychosen. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Huber G (1966) Reine Defectsyndrome und Bassistadien endogener Psychosen. Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr 34:409–426
Keilp JG, Seeney JA, Jacobsen P, Solomon C, St. Louis L, Deck M, Frances A, Mann J (1988) Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: specific relations to ventricular size and negative symptomatology. Biol Psychiatry 24:47–55
Kennard MA (1960) Value of equivocal signs in neurological diagnosis. Neurology 10:753–764
Kick MA (1991) Psychopathologie und Verlauf der Postakuten Schizophrenie. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Koehler K, Sauer H (1984) Huber's basic symptoms: another approach to negative psychopathology in schizophrenia. Compr Psychiatry 25:176–182
Kolakowska T, Williams AO, Ardern M (1985) Schizophrenic with good and poor outcome. III. Neurological “soft” signs. Cognitive impairment and their clinical significance. Br J Psychiatry 146:348–357
Kolb B, Winshaw Q (1983) Performance of schizophrenic patients on test sensibles to left and right frontal, temporal or parietal function in neurological patients. J Nerv Ment Dis 171:435–443
Kraepelin E (1919). Dementia praecox and paraphrenia (tranls. by R. Mary Barclay from Psychiatrie, 8th edn, 1913). Livingstone Edinburgh
Landmark I (1982) A manual for the assessment of schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatr Scand 298 (Suppl 65):1–88
Lobo Ac Ezquerra J, Escobar V, Sala JM, Seva A (1979) El mini examen cognoscitivo: Un test simple y práctico para dectectar defectos cognitivos. Comunicación Psiquiátrica 3:73–79
Liddle PF (1987) Schizophrenic syndromes, cognitive performance and neurological dysfunction. Psychol Med 17:49–57
Liddle PF, Barnes TRE (1988) The subjective experience of deficits in schizophrenia. Compr Psychiatry 29:157–164
Manschreck TC, Ames D (1984) Neurological features and psychopathology in schizophrenic disorders. Biol Psychiatry 19: 703–719
Merriam AE, Kay S, Opler LA, Kushner SF, van Praag M (1990) Neurological signs and the positive-negative dimension in schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry 28:181–192
McGie A, Chapman J (1961) Disorders of attention and perception in early schizophrenia. Br J Med Psychol 34:103–116
Mosher L, Pollin W, Stanebau J (1971) Identical twins discordant for schizophrenia: neurological findings. Arch Gen Psychiatry 24:422–430
Mundt CH, Kasper S, Huerkamp M (1989) The diagnostic specificity of negative symptoms and their psychopathological context. Br J Psychiatry 155 (Suppl 7):32–36
Norusis MJ (1986) The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS/PC+). Manual of reference. SPSS Inc, Chicago
Oldfield RC (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh Inventory. Neuropsychologia 9:97–113
Owens DG, Johnstone EC (1980) The disabilities of chronic schizophrenia — their nature and factors contributing to their development. Br J Psychiatry 136:384–395
Peralta V, Cuesta MJ (1989a) Trastornos cognitivos en la esquizofrenia: valoración por medio del inventario psicopatológico de Frankfurt. Resultados iniciales. Actas Luso-Españolas de Neurología, Psiquiatría y Ciencias Afines 17:255–262
Peralta V, Cuesta MJ (1989b) El valor pronóstico de los trastornos cognitivos en la esquizofrenia evaluados por medio del Inventario Psicopatológico de Frankfurt. Revista de Psiquiatría de la Facultad de Medicina de Barcelona 16:295–302
Peralta V, Cuesta MJ (1991) Schneiderian versus Bleurian schizophrenia and basic symptoms. Psychopathology 24:151–157
Peralta V, Cuesta MJ (1994) Subjective experiences in schizophrenia: a critical review. Compr Psychiatry 35:198–204
Petho B, Bitter I (1985) Types of complaints in psychiatric and internal medical patients. Psychopathology 18:241–253
Reitan RM (1978) Manual for administration of neuropsychological test batteries for adult and children. Reitan Neuropsychology Laboratories, Inc, Tucson, Arizona
Rey A (1959) Test de Copie et de Reproduction de Mémoire de Figures Géometriques Complexes. [El test de copia de una Figura Compleja (1980) TEA, Madrid]
Rochford JM, Detre T, Tucker GJ, Harrow M (1970) Neuropsychological impairments in functional diseases. Arch Psychiatry 22:114–119
Royall DR, Mahurin RK, True JE, Anderson B, Brock IP, Freeburger L, Miller A (1993) Executive impairment among the functionally dependent: comparisons between schizophrenic and elderly subjects. Am Psychiatry 150:1813–1819
Schröder J, Niethammer R, Geider FJ, Reitz C, Binkert M, Jauss M, Sauer H (1992) Neurological soft signs in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 6:25–30
Selten JP, Sijben AE, van den Bosch RJ (1991) Subjective experience of negative symptoms. Biol Psychiatry 29:404S
Spitzer RL, Endicott J, Robins E (1978) Research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for a selected group of functional disorders, 3rd edn. New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York
Strauss JS, Carpenter WT Jr (1974) The prediction of outcome in schizophrenia. II Relationship between predictor and outcome variables. Arch Gen Psychiatry 31:37–42
Sülwold L (1985) Schizophrenic basic disturbances: psychological aspects the type of “psychological deficiency”. In: Pichot P, Berner P, Wolf R, Thau K (eds) Psychiatry. The state of the art, vol 1 Plenum Press, New York and London, pp 473–475
Sülwold L (1986) Frankfurter Bechswerde-Fragebogen (3). In: Sülwold L, Huber G (eds) Schizophrene Bassistörungen. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
van den Bosch RJ, Rozendaal N (1988) Subjective cognitive dysfunction, eye tracking and slow brain potentials in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients. Biol Psychiatry 24:741–746
Wagman AMI, Heinrichs DW, Carpenter WT (1987) Deficit and nondeficit forms of schizophrenia: Neuropsychological evaluation. Psychiatry Res 22:319–330
Wechsler D (1955) Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The Psychological Corporation, New York (WAIS, 1990, TEA Ediciones SA, 8a edición).
Woods BT, Berman KF, Zec RF (1986) Physiologic dysfunctions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. I. Regional cerebral blood flow evidence. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43:647–663
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cuesta, M.J., Peralta, V. & Juan, J.A. Abnormal subjective experiences in schizophrenia: its relationships with neuropsychological disturbances and frontal signs. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 246, 101–105 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02274900
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02274900