Early-onset schizophrenia is associated with impaired adolescent development of attentional capacity using the identical pairs continuous performance test

The authors examined performance on the Continuous Performance Test-Identical Pairs "numbers" task in adolescents with schizophrenia (n = 59) and healthy controls (n = 55). Adjusting for an estimate of premorbid intelligence and socioeconomic status, patients performed worse than normal controls on all three d′ conditions (2-digit, 3-digit, 4-digit). However, there was a significant group-by-age-by-condition interaction (F[4, 100] = 4.69, p < .01) indicating an interaction between development and disease state. At the simplest level of the task (2-digit) the difference between patients with schizophrenia and controls was evident at all ages; while for the more difficult levels of the task (3-digit, 4-digit), differences between groups gradually increased across the tested age span (10 to 20 years of age). Premorbid social isolation was associated with worse attentional performance in patients, suggesting a relationship and continuity with negative symptoms. These data suggest that attentional differences in adolescents with schizophrenia are better captured by different tasks at different ages. The discrepant findings of attentional impairments reported in the literature for adolescents with schizophrenia could reflect the underlying etiological complexity of the disorder that may have a variable impact on involved brain regions and neurocognitive functioning.