Cognitive abnormalities in schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychosis of epilepsy.

Twenty-six patients with schizophrenia and 12 patients with schizophrenia-like psychosis of epilepsy (SLPE) were compared to 38 healthy volunteers and 12 nonpsychotic patients with epilepsy to determine the contribution of psychosis to the pattern of cognition. Tests of memory and executive function were used. The schizophrenic group was more cognitively impaired than the SLPE and comparison groups. The profile of neuropsychological impairment in SLPE resembled that of schizophrenia and is unlikely to be explained solely by temporal lobe dysfunction. These results do not support the concept of SLPE as an independent nosological entity.