A Comparative Study of Neurocognitive Impairment in Elderly Patients with Schizophrenia and Elderly Normals

Background: Cognitive impairment has been known to be a feature of Schizophrenia since the illness was first described in a systematic manner. The course of cognition and functional status in schizophrenia remains an area of significant controversy and is marked by conflicting findings. One of the reasons for this controversy is that cognitive and functional changes occur with normal aging in the population. Method: Total number of samples in the study were 80 (experimental and control), out of which 40 were elderly schizophrenic patients and 40 were normal elderly individuals. Elderly patients with schizophrenia were selected from the inpatient department of RINPAS, Ranchi. Normal elderly people were selected from near by areas of the hospital. On both the groups the Post Graduate InstituteBattery for Assessment of Mental Efficiency in Elderly (PGIAMEE) test was administered. Result: Significant differences were found in mental efficiency between normal elderly group and elderly schizophrenic patients. The mean score of normal population is 52.90 and for schizophrenic group 40.20. Conclusion: The findings of the index study suggests that the marked differences in cognitive functioning has been found between elderly patient with schizophrenia and normal elderly people .Areas of impairment were difficulty in recalling names of different things ,general orientation and visuo-spatial coordination.