[SHIFTING FUNCTION OF WORKING MEMORY IN PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS]. / A MUNKAMEMÓRIA VÁLTÁSI FUNKCIÓJA PSZICHOTIKUS KÓRKÉPEKBEN.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Mental disorders with psychotic features are overlapping in many ways and there are a growing number of comparative studies in the last decades regarding this. Cognitive deficit is well underpinned in schizophrenia, but fewer studies are conducted in this area including patients with bipolar affective disorder. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the cognitive performance of these two patient groups and healthy controls. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Task is a very sensitive measure of the shifting function. Schizophrenic patients perform consistently poorer on this task than healthy controls, while there are not much data about individuals with bipolar affective disorder. METHODS: The Wisconsin Card Sorting Task and clinical symptom rating scales were administered to 26 patients with schizophrenia, 24 with bipolar affective disorder and 21 healthy controls. RESULTS: Significant differences were found among the performance of the three groups using four different dimensions of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. The schizophrenic group made more perseverative errors and achieved less conceptual level responses and completed fewer categories compared to healthy controls. Patients with schizophrenia were able to complete fewer categories and had fewer conceptual level responses than the bipolar group. No significant differences were observed between patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: According to these results, patients with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder showed no similarities on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. Bipolar patients performed the task on the same level as healthy individuals did. The two mental disorders influence cognitive performance differently.