Neuropsychological Pattern of Performance and its Implication for Rehabilitation in Schizophrenia-A Hospital Based Study

The Present study was aimed to understand the Neuropsychological Pattern performance and its implication for rehabilitation in Schizophrenia. The study was conducted at Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, India. A total of 30 known schizophrenic patients (diagnosed as per the ICD-10 criteria), both indoor as well as out-door, were evaluated for their intellectual and memory functioning using verbal intelligence test (Indian version which has four subtests i.e. Information, Digit span, Arithmetic and comprehension), Alexander's Pass- along test (to see the executive function) and PGI Memory Test. The morning doses of the psychotropic drugs were withheld at the time of evaluation. Patients with any other medical disorders and with active substance abuse were excluded from the study. The result of the study reflects that females were having more deficit on attention and concentration parameter in comparison to males. On Executive function parameter significant deficit was noticed in majority of the patients irrespective of the sex. Regarding the memory functioning of these subjects, remote memory and delayed recall appeared highly affected areas irrespective of the sex. Schizophrenic patients show significant deficits in their neuropsychological functioning though the pattern differs gender wise. This shows that combining pharmacological treatment with behavioural approaches might represent the best chance for improving general functioning and quality of life of schizophrenic patients.