Sex-specific cognitive abnormalities in early-onset psychosis

Objectives: Brain maturation differs depending on the area of the brain and sex. Girls show an earlier peak in maturation of the prefrontal cortex. Although differences between adult females and males with schizophrenia have been widely studied, there has been less research in girls and boys with psychosis. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in verbal and visual memory, verbal working memory, auditory attention, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility between boys and girls. Methods: We compared a group of 80 boys and girls with first-episode psychosis to a group of controls. Results: We found interactions between group and sex in verbal working memory (p = 0.04) and auditory attention (p = 0.01). The female controls showed better working memory (p = 0.01) and auditory attention (p = 0.001) than males. However, we did not find any sex differences in working memory (p = 0.91) or auditory attention (p = 0.93) in the psychosis group. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the presence of sex-modulated cognitive profiles at first presentation of early-onset psychosis.

Neuropsychological assessment of memory in child and adolescent first episode psychosis: cannabis and «the paradox effect¼.

INTRODUCTION: The importance of neuropsychological functioning in First-Episode Psychosis (FEP) has led to the publication of a growing number of studies in this area of research. The present study pursued three goals: First, to examine verbal and visual memory in a sample of Child and Adolescent FEP, second, to evaluate the effect of other cognitive domains on verbal and visual memory, and finally, to examine the relationship between performance in this cognitive dimension and the use of cannabis at this age. METHOD: A sample of 41 FEPs and 39 healthy subjects were evaluated. The variables assessed were verbal and visual memory, attention, working memory, processing speed, mental flexibility, verbal fluency, motor coordination, planning ability and intelligence. RESULTS: Our results found impairment of short and long-term recall of verbal memory, and short-term visual memory in early psychosis. They also found relationships between cognitive dimensions, such as visual memory and intelligence and motor coordination. Finally, a «paradoxical¼ effect was found in patients who used cannabis, as the FEP consumers performed the visual memory test better than those who had not used it. CONCLUSIONS: Patients showed impairment of short and long-term recall of verbal information and short-term visual reproduction. In the second place, motor coordination and intelligence influenced short-term visual memory in patients in the early stages of the illness. Third, use of cannabis in patients with FEP was associated with better performance in the test that evaluated the short-term visual memory, as measured by task completion time, that is, efficiency in performing the test. However, when measured by task execution accuracy, their visual memory was no better than the controls.

Dose-response effect between cannabis use and psychosis liability in a non-clinical population: evidence from a snowball sample.

This study aimed to explore the associations between daily cannabis use and the specific profiles of subclinical symptoms in a non-clinical population obtained through snowball sampling, taking into account alcohol use, other drug use, social exclusion and age at onset of cannabis use. We included 85 daily cannabis users and 100 non-daily cannabis users. Both the case and the control populations were identified by snowball sampling. Daily cannabis use was associated with more alcohol intake and other drug use, as well as with early onset in the use of cannabis. Daily cannabis use appeared to exert a dose-response effect on first-rank symptoms, mania symptoms and auditory hallucinations, even after adjusting for sex, age, other drug use, social exclusion and age at onset of cannabis use. The paranoid dimension was only associated with the heaviest consumption of cannabis. Initial age of cannabis use modified the effects of daily cannabis use on the first-rank and voices experiences. Daily cannabis use was associated with significantly more first-rank and voices experiences among those subjects who started to use cannabis before 17 years of age. Our study supports the association of psychotic experiences with cannabis use even among non-psychotic subjects.