An analysis of the schizophrenogenic mother concept by means of the Thematic Apperception Test.

Administered the TAT to 20 mothers of schizophrenic and 20 mothers of normal children. Children were matched on the basis of sex, age, level of education, number of siblings, and the child's position among his siblings. Mothers were matched on the basis of age, level of education, and social class. Each story was judged pathogenic, benign, or unscorable by 2 clinicians. A pathogenic score was tabulated for each mother and for each TAT card from the following formula: pathogenic/pathogenic plus benign. It was found that mothers of schizophrenic children could be differentiated significantly from those of normal children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blink rate in childhood-onset schizophrenia: comparison with normal and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder controls

Several lines of evidence have implicated central dopaminergic pathways in the modulation of blink rate. In the present study, blink rate during smooth pursuit was examined in 17 children with childhood-onset schizophrenia, on and off of clozapine, and compared to that of age-matched normal children and unmedicated children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As has been observed in adolescent and adult schizophrenics, blink rate was significantly higher in schizophrenic children relative to normal and ADHD controls. Within the schizophrenic group, blink rate did not significantly change with the introduction of clozapine and was not related to clinical variables. Blink rate was positively correlated with deterioration in smooth pursuit in normal subjects.     

Residual performance deficit in clinically remitted schizophrenics: A marker of schizophrenia?

The study of remitted schizophrenic outpatients is proposed as a way of minimizing the effects of the "nuisance variables" that confound the study of hospitalized schizophrenics. 20 hospitalized acutely disturbed schizophrenics (mean age, 37.0 yrs), 20 schizophrenic outpatients in clinical remission (mean age, 42.8 yrs) and 20 normal controls (mean age, 35.1 yrs) were administered a span of apprehension test and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). All Ss were controlled for sex and WAIS scores and schizophrenics were rated with Phillips Prognostic Rating Scale. On the CPT, both acute and remitted schizophrenics made significantly more errors of omission and commission than did the normal controls. On the span of apprehension, both groups of schizophrenics showed a significantly greater decrement in accuracy of detection of the target stimuli than did normal controls. The same pattern of results has been observed in children at risk for schizophrenia, which suggests that the span of apprehension may be sensitive to core schizophrenic processes that are independent of clinical state. The cross-sectional study of the 3 stages of schizophrenia—the premorbid, acute, and remitted—is proposed as a way of identifying "core" schizophrenic processes and markers of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The adequacy of a general "attentional impairment" interpretation of schizophrenic deficit is questioned. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signal detection in vigilance tasks and behavioral attributes among offspring of schizophrenic mothers and among hyperactive children.

24 children of schizophrenic mothers, 20 children of mothers with nonpsychotic psychiatric disorders falling outside the schizophrenia spectrum, and 14 hyperactive children were examined relative to groups of individually matched comparison children and to a representatively stratified group of 67 normal children. Ss were 9–16 yrs of age. Children of schizophrenic mothers showed lower mean perceptual sensitivity (PS) than matched and stratified normal children and included an excessive number of extremely poor scorers. Neither children of mothers with nonpsychotic disorders outside the schizophrenia spectrum nor hyperactive children displayed a significant deficit in PS. Hyperactive children scored lower on a beta response criterion factor across vigilance tasks and were rated as higher on an Emotionality factor and lower on a Fearful Inhibition factor than their normal peers. The perceptual sensitivity deficit among children of schizophrenic mothers was found across motivational feedback conditions and was evident throughout the vigilance period. (3? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forced-choice word associations in schizophrenia.

This study, based on Freudian theory, used a forced-choice word association format to test the hypothesis that regressed schizophrenic Ss would prefer children's to adult's association. 16 schizophrenic, 16 sociopathic, and 16 normal male patients matched for age and education were tested on a 51-item test in which they were forced to choose their associations from among randomly arranged adult preferred, children preferred, and irrelevant alternatives. Using choice of children's responses minus choice of irrelevant response as a measure to control for random error markings, schizophrenic Ss differed significantly from normal Ss as predicted. Normal and sociopathic Ss did not differ. Sociopathic and schizophrenic Ss differed at p     

Conversational repair in schizophrenic and normal children

OBJECTIVE: Children acquire the skills to monitor the adequacy of their spoken message and to self-initiate repair strategies that modify the message during early, middle, and late childhood. To characterize further the communication deficits of childhood-onset schizophrenia, this study compared self-initiated repair strategies in schizophrenic and normal children and their relationship with formal thought disorder, discourse deficits, and distractibility. METHOD: Measures of self-initiated repair, formal thought disorder, and cohesion were coded in 32 schizophrenic and 47 normal children, aged 5.6 to 12.4 years, from speech samples elicited with the Story Game. RESULTS: The schizophrenic children used some repair strategies (false starts, fillers, referential revision) more infrequently than the normal children. Within the schizophrenic group, the children who were receiving neuroleptic medication underutilized repair and had more discourse deficits than the unmedicated patients. Loose associations and distractibility were associated with increased use of false starts but not fillers. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to formal thought disorder and discourse deficits, schizophrenic children underutilize self-initiated repair when presenting their thoughts to the listener, particularly if they are being treated with neuroleptics, a potential sign of increased clinical morbidity. Impoverished communication skills might reflect negative signs in childhood-onset schizophrenia.     

Psychological evaluation of clinical disturbance in children at risk for psychopathology.

Evaluated children of 1 schizophrenic or 1 manic-depressive parent for clinical disturbance in the St. Louis risk research project between 1967 and 1971. The investigation employed a psychological battery using the WISC or WAIS, figure drawings, the TAT, the Rorschach, and the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Form Sequence, plus blind clinical disturbance ratings from the test batteries. Tests were administered individually to 339 6–20 yr old children from intact families with 1 schizophrenic, manic-depressive, or physically ill parent, or 2 normal parents. Children of psychiatrically ill parents were found to be more disturbed than children of nonpsychotic parents. Children with a schizophrenic parent demonstrated peformance on psychometric evaluation that was in some ways continuous with that of adult schizophrenics. Children of schizophrenic and manic-depressive parents differed from one another and from controls on 2 measures. In the aggressive content of their TAT stories, children with a schizophrenic parent showed less aggression than normals, and children with a manic-depressive parent showed more aggression than normals. On the Rorschach, children of schizophrenics gave more primitive responses than children of manic-depressives, and the children of normal parents gave an intermediate number of such responses. (2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A taxometric analysis of cognitive and neuromotor variables in children at risk for schizophrenia.

A taxometric model was applied to detect a subgroup or taxon of children conjectured to be at highest risk for developing schizophrenia or related disorders in a sample of offspring of schizophrenic, depressed, and normal parents. Measures of cognitive and neuromotor performance in childhood were used as indicator tests in the analyses. A taxon consisting chiefly of children of schizophrenic parents was detected. Forty-seven percent of those children were assigned to the taxon, compared with 16% of the children of depressed parents and 4% of the children of normal parents. Assignment to the taxon is assessed in relation to the current functional status of the subjects in young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thematic Apperception Test method for the differentiation of families of schizophrenics, delinquents, and "normals."

Assessed the dimension of Parent * Child interactional behavior from 240 TAT stories told by parents of 10 schizophrenics, 10 delinquents, and 10 "normals." A modified content analysis was applied to stories dealing with parent-child plots. Common underlying factors contributing to similar story qualities were abstracted into higher order classes of story behavior. 3 modal behavior categories were defined: personally involved, child-centered, flexible interactions (A), impersonally involved, superficial interactions (B), and overinvolved, parent-centered interactions (C). Blind rating of the stories by Categories A, B, and C significantly and reliably differentiated the 3 parental groups. Blind rating of a separate series of TAT stories told by 20 mothers of schizophrenic children and 20 mothers of normal children using the National Institute of Mental Health method significantly differentiated the 2 parental groups. Processes that may have determined the different patterns of narrated Parent-Child interactions are considered. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual versus tactual receptor preference in normal and schizophrenic children.

Receptor preferences between visual or tactual stimuli were measured in schizophrenic and normal children. 4 pairs of standardized choice situations between visual or tactual stimuli were used, with the time of engagement with either stimulus constituting the preference measure. Schizophrenic children, ages 7-9, were compared with same aged normal children. A group of retardates were used for MA control. Schizophrenics were significantly lower in visual preference than the same aged normals, and an age trend for increased visual preference was found in the normal sample. Retardates showed greater visual preference than schizophrenics of comparable MA. Some implications for theory of schizophrenia are discussed. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of normal and disturbed adults and children to mixed messages.

Showed mixed messages containing contradictory communication components to 10 male 22–38 yr old students, 10 male 23–43 yr old schizophrenic inpatients, 10 male 7–9 yr old normal children, and 10 male 7–9 yr old disturbed children. The overall results reveal that normal adults' evaluations of mixed messages were significantly different from those of disturbed adults and from those of normal and disturbed children. Normal adults appeared to be influenced by all communication components (verbal statement, facial expression, vocal tone, and physical gesture) in mixed messages, whereas the other 3 S-groups were primarily influenced by the words. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of prior experimenter-subject relationships on responses to the Kent-Rosanoff word-association list in schizophrenics.

This study attempted to determine what effect prior experimenter-subject (E-S) relationships would have on schizophrenic word association. 3 groups were used. 1 group was a control. Rebuff and warmth involved a period of 3 half-hour interviews, during which E either acted warm and accepting, or cold and aloof-interested in the experiment only for the experiment's sake. It was found that Ss in the rebuff condition gave significantly more common associations after their relationship with the investigator. A number of possible interpretations for the result were suggested. These included a drive for approval as in normal children, differential levels of anxiety, or confirmation of low expectancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blink rate in pediatric complex partial seizure disorder

This study examined spontaneous blink rate, a putative measure of dopamine function, in 30 children with complex partial epilepsy and 61 normal children. The children with epilepsy had significantly lower blink rates than the normal children in a conversation and a verbal recall task, particularly if they had a schizophrenia-like psychosis, EEG evidence for left focal epileptic activity, illogical thinking, discourse deficits, and distractibility. They modulated their blink rates across a listening, a conversation, and a verbal recall task like the normal children. Given previously reported low blink rates in schizophrenic children, these findings suggest that children with complex partial epilepsy or schizophrenia might have similar biological features.     

Testing parental instructions to schizophrenic and normal children: A pilot study.

Hypothesized that parents communicate to their schizophrenic children in conflicting ways. An experiment was designed where parents instructed their children in a task. Instructions were given from a separate room and were tape recorded so they could be played to matched samples of children. Parents of schizophrenics, of nonschizophrenic abnormal children, and of normal children were contrasted. The achievement of the children in the task was measured, and matched samples of children listened to the instructions of a group of parents of schizophrenics and a group of parents of normal children. Indications were that parents of schizophrenics do not communicate in more conflicting ways than parents of normal children when the measurement is the success of a child in following their instructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attentional assessment of foster children at risk for schizophrenia.

Investigated whether processes observed in adult schizophrenics could be detected in children who were not schizophrenic but were at heightened risk for the disorder. A battery of 8 attention-demanding tasks was administered to (a) 9 foster children at heightened risk for schizophrenia by virtue of having a schizophrenic biological mother, (b) 10 foster children without a family history of psychiatric disorder, and (c) 10 children living with their biological parents, none of whom had a history of psychiatric disorder. The tasks included in the battery had been demonstrated in previous research to be sensitive discriminators of adult schizophrenic pathology. Results indicate the presence of attentional dysfunction in high-risk children prior to the onset of clinical symptoms. The high-risk group showed significantly lower levels of performance on certain tasks, notably the complex versions of the span-of-apprehension and Spokes tests from the Halstead-Reitan Test Battery, and the simple conditions of the concept attainment task. Examination of low-scoring Ss, intercorrelations between tasks, and the results of a cluster analysis revealed that within the high-risk group there was a subset of Ss who showed impairment across these tasks to produce the overall low group means. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forward and backward visual masking of contour by light in positive- and negative-symptom schizophrenia.

Forward and backward masking of contour by light was investigated with stimulus onset asynchronies from 20 to 180 ms in a group of 22 schizophrenic patients and 22 matched normal controls. Individuals with schizophrenia were selected using American Psychiatric Association (1987) criteria and were also assessed using the Andreasen scales for the presence of positive and negative symptoms (N.C. Andreasen, 1981, 1983). The Andreasen scales were used to divide schizophrenic patients into 2 subgroups (positive and negative symptoms). Positive-symptom schizophrenic patients showed no differences in their target duration thresholds or in their backward masking functions. Negative symptom schizophrenic patients showed significantly longer target duration thresholds and experienced significantly more backward masking. There was no difference between schizophrenic patients and controls in forward masking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Replication of a P50 auditory gating deficit in Australian patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenic patients reportedly have a deficit in the control of sensitivity to auditory stimuli as shown by the P50 auditory evoked potential wave in a conditioning-testing paradigm that measures suppression of response to a repeated stimulus. Although this finding has been replicated by several US laboratories, one European group has not found differences between schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects. In the present study, investigators in the Schizophrenia Research Center at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia, selected 22 normal control subjects, 11 acutely ill schizophrenic inpatients, and 11 clinically stable schizophrenic outpatients. Both schizophrenic groups were treated with similar doses of classical neuroleptic medications. Evoked potentials were recorded by an investigator from the US laboratory that initially reported the difference; five averages, each the response to 32 stimulus pairs, were recorded from each subject. The normal control subjects demonstrated significantly more suppression of the P50 response to the repeated stimuli than the schizophrenic groups, as previously reported. There were no significant changes in the suppression measure over the five trials. The suppression of the P50 wave by schizophrenic outpatients was somewhat greater than that by schizophrenic inpatients, but both schizophrenic groups had decreased suppression, compared with the normal subjects. The mean P50 suppression for five averages was successfully used in a logistic regression to classify subjects as normal or schizophrenic. This method was more accurate than attempts to classify subjects with only one average. The mean amplitude of the initial conditioning response did not differ between groups. Schizophrenic patients had slightly shorter mean latencies. There was no direct relationship of P50 suppression to measures of clinical psychopathology.     

Schizophrenia in high-risk subjects: Prognostic maternal characteristics.

A Danish prospective, longitudinal study of 207 children (average age 15 yrs) at high risk for schizophrenia (they have schizophrenic mothers), begun in 1962, involved assessment of mothers on a number of variables. In 1972 it was found that 17 of the children of these mothers became schizophrenic. The present study sought to identify predictors of schizophrenia among antecedent maternal variables. The mothers (15 Ss) of the children who became schizophrenic (a) had psychosis precipitated by childbirth and (b) exhibited instability in their relations with men as well as antisocial behaviors. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomic nervous system activity in autistic, schizophrenic, and normal men: Effects of stimulus significance.

Deficits in attention and cognition in autistic children have been attributed to problems in the early stages of stimulus processing and to autonomic dysregulation, but the evidence is conflicting. Our study addressed this problem by recording skin conductance, skin temperature, respiration rate, and heart rate (HR) during (a) a rest period, (b) a series of nonsignal tones, and (c) a simple warned reaction time (RT) task in autistic, schizophrenic, and normal men; we sought to remove extraneous sources of variance by testing only high-functioning autistic men (n?=?13); age?=?18–39). Control subjects were age-matched normal men (n?=?19) and schizophrenic men (n?=?13) not chronically hospitalized. Autistic men had higher respiration rates, lower skin temperature, and higher HR variability at rest than controls. They were not different on other arousal measures or generally in responding to nonsignal tones but had severely impaired tonic and phasic autonomic responses and motor responses in the RT task. Schizophrenic subjects were also impaired but significantly less so in some aspects of responding. The results do not suggest problems in stimulus processing, but there is evidence of autonomic dysregulation and a pronounced inability to mobilize processing resources appropriately, perhaps a common problem with schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination of schizophrenic and brain-injured patients by a standardized version of Luria's Neuropsychological Tests.

Examines the ability of a standardized battery of tests, the Luria-South Dakota Neuropsychological Test Battery, to discriminate between brain-injured and schizophrenic patients. An earlier study by the present authors (see record 1979-25087-001) reported 93% effectiveness for the standardized battery in discriminating brain-injured patients and normal controls. In the present study, the battery was administered to 50 schizophrenic, mean age 41.3 yrs, and 50 brain-injured patients, mean age 44.4 yrs. Chronicity was 121 mo for the schizophrenic group and 56 mo for the neurological patients. Of the 282 items in the battery, schizophrenics showed significantly better performance on 72 items. A discriminant analysis using 60 items demonstrated 100% diagnostic accuracy. Schizophrenics performed significantly better on 10 of 14 summary measures. A discriminant analysis using the 14 summary measures achieved 88% diagnostic accuracy. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)