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As originally described by Bleuler, some schizophrenia patients exhibit clear cognitive decline in adulthood (NEJM JW Psychiatry Sep 2015 and JAMA Psychiatry 2015; 72:803). To learn more, researchers analyzed data from a longitudinal study (N=4322 children).
Varying numbers of participants underwent repeated cognitive testing, from age 18 months through age 20 years, and psychiatric assessment at age 18. Diagnostic groups — psychotic disorders, psychosis with depression, subclinical psychotic experiences, nonpsychotic depression — were compared with a control group.
Only psychotic disorders were associated with a decline in verbal IQ during childhood that then remained static and with continued declines in nonverbal and full-scale IQ through …