Dynamics of neurological soft signs and its relationship to clinical course in patients with first-episode schizophrenia

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Authors

PŘIKRYL Radovan ČEŠKOVÁ Eva TRONEROVÁ Silva KAŠPÁREK Tomáš PŘIKRYLOVÁ KUČEROVÁ Hana USTOHAL Libor VENCLÍKOVÁ Simona VRZALOVÁ Michaela

Year of publication 2012
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Psychiatry Research
MU Faculty or unit

Central European Institute of Technology

Citation
Web http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2012.03.008
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2012.03.008
Field Psychiatry, sexuology
Keywords Clinical course; follow-up; neurological evaluation scale; NES; Neurological soft signs; NSS; first episode schizophrenia
Attached files
Description The aim of the study was to assess the dynamics of neurological soft signs (NSS) over four years from the clinical onset of schizophrenia, depending on the clinical course of the disease, and to evaluate the relationship of NSS to symptomatic dimensions in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Sixty-eight patients with first-episode schizophrenia were included in the trial. The clinical status was assessed using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at the same time as the neurological examination, at admission to the hospital for first-episode schizophrenia and at a check-up examination four years later. The assessment of NSS using the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES) coincided with the assessment of the clinical condition of the patients. According to the Andreasen remission criterion of schizophrenia, after four years we found that 57% of patients’ were remitters and 43% were nonremitters. During the monitoring period, in remitters total NES score and sensory integration/ sequencing of motor acts items of the NES decreased. In non-remitters, increase in the total NES score and the ‘others’ item of the NES was observed. A connection between the dynamics of NSS and the clinical course of schizophrenia, over the period of four years, and a relationship between NSS and negative schizophrenia symptoms was found.
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