[Application of the Trail Making Test in the schizophrenia research].

Abstract

Even the Kraepelinian concept of dementia praecox suggests a link between schizophrenia and various cognitive deficits. Although cognitive impairment is not a fundamental symptom of schizophrenia, it is considered to be one of the basic features of the disease. The deficit can affect a number of cognitive domains and is most often specific. One of the most pronounced cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia is impairment in attentional and executive functions. The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a screening test commonly used in the clinic that is very sensitive to impairments in attention and executive functions. The aim of the present study is to summarise the research conducted in the last five years in which the Trail Making Test has been used to screen schizophrenics. A search was conducted in the PubMed database using the keywords "schizophrenia" and "Trail Making Test". A total of 43 relevant studies have been published on this topic since 2018. A review of the research on this topic shows that the TMT can be used to identify cognitive deficits in schizophrenics, affecting executive functions and attention. It also shows that schizophrenic patients performed significantly worse on the test than healthy individuals.