Pattern of Attentional Task Impairment in Schizophrenic Patients: A Study Report

Authors

  • Shailja Singh Senior Scientific Officer, Directorate General of Employment and Training, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Delhi
  • Tapas Kumar Aich Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Universal College of Medical Sciences & Teaching Hospital, Bhairahawa
  • Sanjeev Ranjan Department of Psychiatry, Universal College of Medical Sciences & Teaching Hospital, Bhairahawa
  • Abhinav Kumar BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/jucms.v1i2.8402

Keywords:

Schizophrenia, Positive Symptom, Negative Symptom, Attentional Task Impairment

Abstract

The present study attempted to find out the relationship between positive and negative clinical symptoms and  various attentional task impairment in a group of schizophrenic patients.

METHODS: Fifty schizophrenic patients were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale  (PANSS) by a trained psychiatrist (TKA) who was blind to attentional test measures and two groups, each of 25  positive symptom and 25 negative symptom schizophrenic patients, were formed. On these 50 patients with  schizophrenia and 15 normal control groups, various attentional test measures were applied by a clinical  psychologist (SS) who remained blind to the PANSS score.

RESULTS: It was found that schizophrenic patients were deficient in performing simple auditory and visual  attentional tasks in comparison to normal subjects. The results of this study are inconsistent with the assumption  that deficits in attention are uniquely associated with negative symptoms. The findings clearly support the  hypothesis of a relationship between type of attentional processing and “dimensions” of schizophrenic  symptomatology. The positive symptoms patients seem to be associated with attentional dysfunction especially  selective attention and short term recall, whereas negative symptoms patients seem to be associated with different  types of attentional deficits, e.g., sustained attention and visual attention.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of our study are consistent with the existing literature that schizophrenic patients  in general perform poorly on various measures of attentional tasks. Positive and negative symptoms  schizophrenics have some correlation with distinct attentional deficits.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jucms.v1i2.8402

Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences Vol.1(2) 2013: 1-7

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Published

2013-08-09

How to Cite

Singh, S., Aich, T. K., Ranjan, S., & Kumar, A. (2013). Pattern of Attentional Task Impairment in Schizophrenic Patients: A Study Report. Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences, 1(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3126/jucms.v1i2.8402

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2013)

Section

Original Articles

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