Neurological soft signs, cognitive dysfunction and ventricular brain ration in schizophrenics

Abstract

An association between cognitive dysfunction, neurological soft signs, enlarged brain ventricles and widened cortical sulci has been reported in schizophrenia. The present work aimed to study the relevance of positive and negative dichotomy with relation to neuropsychological performance of the schizophrenic patients, and the presence of neurological soft signs. In 23 schizophrenics patients diagnosed according to DSM-III-R of which 14 were of positive subtype and 9 were of negative subtype. At least one neurological soft sign was present in all the patients. The positive group had higher WMS and IQ scores and lower BGT scores than the negative group. Negative, correlation was seen for WMS and BGT scores with Ventricular Brain Ratio (VBR), and the soft signs showed positive correlation in the positive subtype only.

Keywords: Schizophrenia; negative subtype; neurological soft signs; neuropsychological tests; positive subtype; ventricular brain ratio.