Affiliations: Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge,
Hills Road, Cambridge, UK | Cambridge Psychiatric Rehabilitation Service, Fulbourn
Hospital, Cambridge, UK
Note: [] Address for correspondence/present address: H. Ihara, Juntendo
Koshigaya Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Fukuroyama 560,
Koshigaya City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan 343-0032. Tel.: +81 48 975 0321; Fax:
+81 48 975 3022; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: This paper examined the relationship between the 'negative syndrome'
(NS) and the neuropsychological 'dysexecutive syndrome' (DES) in schizophrenia.
The study also examined whether any relationship that exists between the NS and
the DES holds equally for British and Japanese subjects. We compared 26
Japanese with 17 British schizophrenic patients, divided into 'mild' and
'severe' NS groups, on the basis of performance on neuropsychological tests,
including the 'Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome' (BADS). We
found that patients with severe NS showed more everyday executive deficits than
those with mild NS. The severity of NS was correlated with executive
competence. The association between NS and the BADS performance was closer than
that between NS and other conventional executive measures. These findings were
not influenced by cultural differences between Japanese and British subjects,
and, hence, suggested the existence of culture-neutral neurobehavioural
processes.
