Relationship between Executive Function and Problem Solving Ability of Schizophrenia Patients

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a disorder associated with cognitive impairment and deficits, mainly in the area of attention, memory, and executive functions, which are related to an individual's adaptive and social skills. Schizophrenia patients also show mark deficit in their problem solving abilities and daily living activities. The present study aims to find out the relationship between clinical symptoms, executive function and problem solving abilities of schizophrenia patients. 30 schizophrenia patients were selected for the study and assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) respectively. Findings suggest that negative symptoms and executive functioning are potentially important mediating factor in a person's problem solving abilities in day- to- day life.