ABSTRACT
Schizophrenic patients were rated on three syndromal dimensions derived from positive and negative symptom ratings. Scores on each dimension were compared to performance on neuropsychological tests before and after coaching instructions. Patients evidenced significant improvement in performance on all measures readministered immediately after instruction. Disorganization symptoms were correlated with lower levels of performance on all pre-coaching, trial 1 tests. Disorganization symptoms were also associated with lower levels of trial 2 post-coaching performance, independent of pre-coaching scores. These results suggest that, within a population of schizophrenic patients, symptoms of disorganization are associated with relatively greater impairments in performance on neuropsychological tests and with impaired ability to improve test performance following coaching instructions. The three symptom dimensions show promise for reducing heterogeneity within samples of schizophrenic patients.
Subject(s)
Neuropsychological Tests , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Schizophrenic Psychology , Adult , Attention , Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Memory, Short-Term , Middle Aged , Practice, Psychological , Schizophrenia, Disorganized/diagnosis , Schizophrenia, Disorganized/psychologyABSTRACT
This study examined differences in habituation between high and low socially anxious Ss. Participants gave three impromptu speeches, each separated by a brief rest interval. Skin conductance and heart rate were monitored during the speeches. Following each speech participants completed self-ratings of nervousness, heart rate, and palmar sweat activity as well as a modified Social Interaction Self Statement Test. Low anxious controls showed significant reduction of negative expectations and self-reported nervousness, heart rate, and sweat activity across the three trials. Actual heart rate of low-anxious subjects also decreased significantly across trials. In contrast, high anxious subjects did not evidence significant decreases in any of the above measures of anxiety and stress across the three trials. Skin conductance measures increased across trials for both groups, but increased more for the high anxious group than low-anxious controls. Results indicate that high anxiety participants are slow to decrease cognitive and autonomic responsiveness to stressful social situations.
