[Frontal lobe functions in parents of patients with schizophrenia].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate patients with schizophrenia and their parents for frontal lobe functions and to compare the results with control groups matched for age, gender and education level. METHOD: Twenty-one patients with schizophrenia and their parents (n = 42) were included in the study along with 25 healthy controls matched with patients for age, gender and education level and 20 controls matched with parents for age, gender and education level were also included in the study. All the subjects were interviewed with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and were given tests of frontal lobe functions (Category naming, Luria's hand series, Trailmaking, Stroop, Wisconsin card sorting test). RESULTS: (1). Compared with the matched controls, the patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse in Category naming, Luria's hand series, Trailmaking and Wisconsin card sorting tests. (2). Compared to the control group matched with the parents, no significant differences were found on any of the tests. CONCLUSION: The lack of any difference in the performance of parents of patients with schizophrenia in frontal lobe function tests compared to controls matched for age and education level does not support the genetic hypothesis for schizophrenia. This indicates that the impairment in frontal lobe functions may be specific to schizophrenia itself.