Executive function in early- and adult onset schizophrenia

Abstract Background The goal of this study was to investigate differences in executive functioning between patients with early-onset and adult-onset schizophrenia spectrum psychoses at the time of first treatment. Methods Neuropsychological tests covering executive functioning domains were performed for 20 adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) close to first treatment and 90 first episode patients with adult onset schizophrenia (AOS) in addition to 66 adolescent- and 127 adult age and gender matched healthy controls. Results Both EOS and AOS patients had significantly poorer executive performance than their age- and gender matched healthy counterparts. Both healthy adolescent controls and EOS patients had poorer executive performance than their adult counterparts. However, there were no differences in executive functioning between EOS and AOS patients after controlling for the levels of their age matched healthy control groups. Substituting EOS/AOS status with other age-at-onset thresholds had no effect. Conclusions We find the same relative levels of executive dysfunction in EOS- and AOS groups at the time of first treatment. This does not necessarily contradict previous findings of more severe dysfunction in EOS patients over time, but indicates an interaction between the disorder and the maturational processes that only can be investigated through longitudinal studies.