Objectives:
Brain maturation differs depending on the area of the
brain and
sex.
Girls show an earlier peak in maturation of the
prefrontal cortex. Although differences between
adult females and
males with
schizophrenia have been widely studied, there has been less
research in
girls and
boys with
psychosis. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in verbal and visual
memory, verbal
working memory, auditory
attention,
processing speed, and cognitive
flexibility between
boys and
girls.
Methods:
We compared a group of 80
boys and
girls with first-episode
psychosis to a group of controls.
Results:
We found interactions between group and
sex in verbal
working memory (p = 0.04) and auditory
attention (p = 0.01). The
female controls showed better
working memory (p = 0.01) and auditory
attention (p = 0.001) than
males. However, we did not find any
sex differences in
working memory (p = 0.91) or auditory
attention (p = 0.93) in the
psychosis group.
Conclusions:
These results are consistent with the presence of
sex-modulated cognitive profiles at first presentation of early-onset
psychosis.