Background
Previous studies have reported that as a group, individuals affected by psychotic
and nonpsychotic disorders perform below norms on cognitive tests. Other studies have
indicated that unaffected siblings of individuals affected by psychotic disorders
also perform below norms on the same tests. We investigated cognitive performance
on a large, population-based sample of individuals, affected at the time of testing
by nonpsychotic disorders, and their unaffected siblings.
Methods
Subjects were taken from a population-based cohort of 523,375, 16- to 17-year-old
male adolescents who had been assessed by the Israeli Draft Board. Cognitive test
scores were examined in sib-pairs discordant for nonpsychotic (n = 19,489) and psychotic (n = 888) disorders and compared with 224,082 individuals from sibships with no evidence
of mental illness.
Results
There appears to be a gradient in cognitive performance (worst to best) from individuals
currently affected by psychotic illnesses (Cohen’s d = −.82), followed by individuals currently affected by nonpsychotic illness (Cohen’s
d = −.58), unaffected siblings of individuals affected by psychotic illness (Cohen’s
d = −.37), unaffected siblings of individuals affected by nonpsychotic illness (Cohen’s
d = −.27), and members of sibships with no evidence of mental illness. Unaffected siblings
of both psychotic and nonpsychotic individuals from multiple affected sibships (more
then one affected sibling) had worse cognitive test scores compared with unaffected
siblings from simplex sibships (only one affected sibling).
Conclusions
The results support, but do not prove, the notion that cognitive impairment in psychiatric
disorders is familial and cuts across diagnostic entities.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Cognition in schizophrenia: Impairments, determinants, and functional importance.Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2005; 28 (626): 613-633
- Patterns of memory impairment in bipolar disorder and unipolar major depression.Psychiatry Res. 2006; 142: 139-150
- Cognitive impairment in bipolar II disorder.Br J Psychiatry. 2006; 189: 254-259
- Neurocognitive function in panic disorder and social phobia patients.Anxiety. 1994; 1: 201-207
- Disorder-specific neuroanatomical correlates of attentional bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and hypochondriasis.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005; 62: 922-933
- Impaired memory and general intelligence related to severity and duration of patients’ disease in Type A posttraumatic stress disorder.Behav Med. 2005; 31: 73-84
- Attention, learning, and memory performances and intellectual resources in Vietnam veterans: PTSD and no disorder comparisons.Neuropsychology. 2002; 16: 5-14
- Learning and memory in combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.Am J Psychiatry. 1995; 152: 137-139
- Response inhibition deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder.Psychiatry Res. 2002; 110: 165-174
- Anxiety and selective attention in obsessive-compulsive disorder.Behav Res Ther. 2003; 41: 1311-1323
- Persistent cognitive dysfunction in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A naturalistic study.Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2005; 59: 539-545
- Neurocognitive impairment in dramatic personalities: Histrionic, narcissistic, borderline, and antisocial disorders.Psychiatry Res. 1992; 42: 283-290
- Neuropsychological impairment in borderline personality disorder.Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2004; 27 (viii–ix): 67-82
- Borderline personality disorder.Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2000; 23 (vi): 41-60
- WAIS performances in antisocial personality (disorder).Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1977; 55: 220-224
- Prefrontal cortical dysfunction in abstinent cocaine abusers.J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2004; 16: 456-464
- Neuropsychological performance of individuals dependent on crack-cocaine, or crack-cocaine and alcohol, at 6 weeks and 6 months of abstinence.Drug Alcohol Depend. 2002; 66: 161-171
- Impairments in cognition across the spectrum of psychiatric disorders: Evidence from a Swedish conscript cohort.2005 (International Conference of Schizophrenia Research; April 2005; Savannah, Georgia)
- Cognitive performance of male adolescents is lower than controls across psychiatric disorders: A population-based study.Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2004; 110: 471-475
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity during maintenance and manipulation of information in working memory in patients with schizophrenia.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005; 62: 1071-1080
- The inheritance of neuropsychological dysfunction in twins discordant for schizophrenia.Am J Hum Genet. 2000; 67: 369-382
- Neuropsychological functioning in siblings discordant for schizophrenia and healthy volunteers.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1994; 51: 651-661
- The endophenotype concept in psychiatry: Etymology and strategic intentions.Am J Psychiatry. 2003; 160: 636-645
- Familial cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2005; 133: 43-49
- Executive/attentional performance and measures of schizotypy in patients with schizophrenia and in their nonpsychotic first-degree relatives.Schizophr Res. 2000; 46: 269-283
- Cognitive deficits in relatives of patients with schizophrenia: A meta-analysis.Schizophr Res. 2004; 71: 285-295
- Indicators of genetic liability to schizophrenia: A sibling study of neuropsychological performance.Schizophr Bull. 2005; 31: 85-96
- The selection, classification and placement process.in: Gal R. A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier. Grenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut1986: 77-96
- The selection, classification and placement process.in: Gal R. A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut1986: 77
- Construction of questionnaire to replace a valid structured interview in the Israeli Defense Forces.Megamot Behavioral Sciences Quarterly. 1968; 16: 69-74
- An objective group questionnaire as a substitute for a personal interview in the prediction of success in military training in Israel.Personal Psychology. 1982; 35: 349-357
- Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences.2nd ed. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey1988
- Number of siblings, family background, and the process of educational attainment.Soc Biol. 1986; 33: 5-21
- Characterization and Classification of Geographical Untis by the Socio-Economic Level of the Population, vol. 13.Ministry of the Interior, Jerusalem1995
- On the methods and theory of reliability.J Nerv Ment Dis. 1976; 163: 307-317
- Executive and nonexecutive neuropsychological functioning in antisocial personality disorder.Cogn Behav Neurol. 2003; 16: 100-109
- Neuropsychological findings in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.Clin Neuropsychol. 2002; 16: 310-321
- Neuropsychological performance in schizotypal personality disorder: Importance of working memory.Am J Psychiatry. 2005; 162: 1896-1903
- Neuropsychological functioning in patients with borderline personality disorder.J Clin Psychol. 2000; 56: 1587-1600
- Neuropsychologic functioning among the nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenic patients: The effect of genetic loading.Biol Psychiatry. 2000; 48: 120-126
- Childhood adversity and adult psychiatric disorder in the US National Comorbidity Survey.Psychol Med. 1997; 27: 1101-1119
- Further evidence of relation between prenatal famine and major affective disorder.Am J Psychiatry. 2000; 157: 190-195
- Determinants of depression among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in Toronto.J Nerv Ment Dis. 2004; 192: 363-372
- Urbanisation and incidence of psychosis and depression: Follow-up study of 4.4 million women and men in Sweden.Br J Psychiatry. 2004; 184: 293-298
- Genetics of anxiety disorders.Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2004; 6: 243-254
- Alcoholism: Genes and mechanisms.Pharmacogenomics. 2004; 5: 1037-1048
- Meta-analysis reveals association between serotonin transporter gene STin2 VNTR polymorphism and schizophrenia.Mol Psychiatry. 2005; 10 (891): 928-938
- Neuregulin 1 gene and variations in perceptual aberration of schizotypal personality in adolescents.Psychol Med. 2005; 35: 1589-1598
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor val66met and psychiatric disorders: Meta-analysis of case-control studies confirm association to substance-related disorders, eating disorders, and schizophrenia.Biol Psychiatry. 2007; 61: 911-922
- DISC1 and neurocognitive function in schizophrenia.Neuroreport. 2005; 16: 1399-1402
- Effect of COMT Val108/158 Met genotype on frontal lobe function and risk for schizophrenia.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001; 98: 6917-6922
- Verbal and facial measures of children’s emotion and empathy.J Exp Child Psychol. 1995; 59: 299-316
- Prevalence of DSM-III-R and ICD-10 psychiatric disorders in a Spanish population of 18-year-olds.Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1997; 96: 287-294
- 10-year research update review: The epidemiology of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders: I.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2005; 44: 972-986
- Prevalence and comorbidity of DSM-III-R diagnoses in a birth cohort of 15 year olds.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1993; 32: 1127-1134
- The National Psychiatric Morbidity surveys of Great Britain–initial findings from the household survey.Psychol Med. 1997; 27: 775-789
Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 10, 2007
Accepted:
May 16,
2007
Received in revised form:
May 13,
2007
Received:
February 25,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
