The study of intertemporal decision-making of schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore whether the ability of intertemporal choice is impaired in schizophrenic patients and in their unaffected siblings.Methods Twenty-five schizophrenia patients,twenty-five unaffected siblings of patients and thirty healthy controls were recruited in the study."Delay-discounting" task and a battery of cognitive neuropsychological assessment were used to examine the intertemporal decision-making.Results (1) the value of k was ((0.005±0.009 in schizophrenia,0.011±0.014 in unaffected siblings and 0.024±0.029 in healthy controls,respectively.There was significant difference in k value among these three groups (F=9.487,P＜0.001).There were significant differences in k value between patients group and healthy controls,and between unaffected siblings and healthy controls (P＜0.05).There was no significant difference between schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings (P＜0.05).(2) Pearson correlation analysis not showed any relationship between neuropsychological test and the value of k.Conclusion The ability of intertemporal choices is impaired in schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings to a great degree.