Behavior characteristics and cognitive function in the first-episode children with or without obsessive-com-pulsive symptoms / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate cognitive function and behavior characteristics in the childhood onset schizo?phrenia patients with or without obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Methods One hundred forty-nine schizophrenia chil?dren were recruited and 72 healthy children served as children control group. According to the Schedule for Affective Dis?orders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL), the patients were fur?ther divided into two groups, the children with obsessive-compulsive disorder group (70 cases) and the children without obsessive-compulsive disorder group (79 cases). All the children were retrospectively surveyed and the Achenbach’s Child Behavior Check-list (CBCL) was used to assess their social competence and behavioral characteristics at the age from 6-year-old to 10-year-old. The cognitive function was estimated with WISC, STROOP color and word test, trail making test, visal spatial memory test and maze test. Results Compare to the control group, the CBCL factor scores of behavior problems were higher (P<0.01), social ability factor scores were lower (P<0.05) and all factor scores in the cog?nitive function tests were lower (P<0.05) in the two patients groups. Compare to the patients without obsessive-compul?sive symptoms, the CBCL factor scores of the school situation (P<0.01), splitting force (P<0.01), and physical complaints (P<0.01) were significantly higher and the scores were significantly lower in the test of common sense (P<0.01), wood (P<0.01), STROOP (P<0.01) and BVMT-R (P<0.01) in those with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Correlation analysis showed that social competence total scores were positively correlated with similarity in the patients with obsessive-com?pulsive symptoms (r=0.31, P<0.01);while behavior problems total scores were negatively correlated with wood (r=-0.31, P<0.01) and patchwork (r=-0.32, P<0.01) in the patients without obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Conclusion The schizophrenia children with obsessive-compulsive symptoms have more behavioral problems in pre-symptom period and their cognitive dysfunction are more severe following onset of the disease. Cognitive function is related to behavioral prob?lems and social competence in the schizophrenia children with or without obsessive-compulsive symptoms .