Cognitive Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Cognitive dysfunction is the loss of intellectual abilities that can range from mild to severe disturbance and affect an individual's attention, thinking, memory, executive function, reasoning, visual-spatial function, language, and psychomotor speed. The purpose of this review paper is to carry out a current understanding of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia as well as their relationship with the other aspects of illness. The present review deals with empirical studies from January 2005 to March 2015 searching through Pub Med database and Google Scholar, and 96 articles were found appropriate on the basis of their titles and abstracts. Schizophrenia and Schizophrenia spectrum disorder were included as study sample. Cognitive dysfunction was found in all domains including of attention, executive function, comprehension, learning and memory. Cognitive dysfunction were found in every phase of illness and significantly correlated with positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms, patient demographics and functional outcome in schizophrenia. Cognitive dysfunction affects the overall life of a patient with schizophrenia. This paper may help to better identify and understand the cognitive dysfunctions in schizophrenia and ultimately guide in better management.