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Executive (frontal) dysfunction and negative symptoms in schizophrenia: Apparent gender differences in ‘static’ v. ‘progressive’ profiles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Paul J. Scully ,
Grainne Coakley ,
Anthony Kinsella  and
John L. Waddington
Paul J. Scully
Affiliation:
Stanley Foundation Research Unit, St Davnet's Hospital, Monaghan, and Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin
Grainne Coakley
Affiliation:
Stanley Foundation Research Unit, St Davnet's Hospital, Monaghan
Anthony Kinsella
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Dublin Institute of Technology
John L. Waddington*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
*
Professor John L. Waddington, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Ireland. Fax: (353) (+) 402 2453
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Abstract

Background

While executive (frontal lobe) dysfunction appears to be a core feature of schizophrenia, its relationship to psychopathology, age and duration of illness has yet to be explored systematically between the genders.

Method

Executive dysfunction, positive and negative symptoms were evaluated in 27 male and 21 female in-patients who were unusually well-matched on numerous demographic and clinical measures.

Results

Measures of executive dyscontrol and negative symptoms were highly associated in both genders. However, while both executive dyscontrol and negative symptoms increased prominently with age/duration of illness among women, no such relationship was evident among men.

Conclusions

The similarly prominent levels of current executive dyscontrol and negative symptoms in male and female patients appear to have emerged via processes that differ fundamentally between the genders; among males these deficits appear to emerge and become ‘locked in’ earlier in the course of illness and to show little subsequent increase, while among females these same deficits appear to be less evident early in the course but to increase in prominence thereafter.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 171 , Issue 2 , August 1997 , pp. 154 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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