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Cognitive impairment and neurological soft signs in an Egyptian sample of schizophrenia patients

AbstractCognitive impairment and neurological soft signs (NSS) are increasing in frequency among schizophrenia patients. However, this relationship has remained elusive and has hardly been studied. ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that increased NSS would be associated with more cognitive impairment and more severe psychopathology in an Egyptian sample of schizophrenia patients from the Sharkia governorate. Participants and methodsFifty consecutive attendees of the Psychiatric Outpatients Clinic, University Hospital, Zagazig, Egypt, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were compared with 50 matched healthy controls. Outcome measures included the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES): Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scales (PANSS). ResultsCompared with the controls, patients had lower RBANS and higher NES scores. Patients were classified into two groups by the median (4.0) of the NES-total scores. Patients with high NES scores (N=29): compared with those with low NES scores (N 21) had higher PANSS negative scale scores and lower Visuospatial/Constructional, Attention, and Delayed scores. ConclusionNSSs may be linked to the neuropathology that underlies the negative symptomatology of schizophrenia. The association of NSSs with cognitive impairments may be considered as additional support to the use of neurological examination as a bedside screening measure for cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia.