S64. EXECUTIVE FUNCTION OF CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS IN A SEVEN-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Abstract Background Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are generalized, but memory and executive dysfunction represent the more robust impairments and are strongly associated with adverse social and occupational outcomes. Those deficits are present in all phases of the disease, but their course, particularly in the chronic phase, is less clear. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in the performance of chronic schizophrenia patients in tests of executive function over a seven-year test-retest period. Methods We will contact 85 patients with schizophrenia, considered clinically stable in previous year, who participated in a study about the deficit syndrome of schizophrenia in 2009–2010. Back then, they were recruited in two sites: an outpatient service of a general hospital (49 patients) and a community-based mental health service for patients with severe mental illness (36 patients), both in Campinas, Brazil. Patients will be reassessed with the same instruments adopted in the first study: SAPS; SANS; Calgary Depression Scale (CDS); Quality of Life Scale (QLS) and a battery of tests comprising Verbal Fluency Tasks; Digit Span Forward (DSF) and Backward (DSB) and Trail Making Tests (TMT) A and B. Additionally, we included three instruments: PSP, for social functioning; Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and London Tower Test (LTT), for executive functions. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare executive performance at baseline and at follow-up. Linear regression was used to test associations between variables. We started the recruitment by the patients originally treated in the outpatient clinic. Results We present in this poster partial results. Among the 20 patients re-interviewed the mean age at baseline was 36.9 ± 8.9 years, mean duration of mental illness was 16 ± 10.1 years, 75% were men. They had in mean, 10.7 ± 3.3 years of education, only 20% had any work activity, and 15% were married. Mean length of test-retest interval was 6.9 years (minimum 6 and maximum 7.7). At follow-up, 4 patients had improved their education, but only 3 (15%) had any work activity. Up to now 19 patients completed the cognitive reassessment. We performed a principal components factor analysis (PCA) including DSB, TMT-B and VFT for both baseline and follow-up assessments. PCA yielded a single factor for the set of tests in both assessments, which we named Executive Factor, accounting for 57% of variance in baseline and 51.38% in the follow-up assessment. Factor s