PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Prospective memory performance in non-psychotic first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia: a controlled study.

  • Fu-Chun Zhou,
  • Wei-Min Hou,
  • Chuan-Yue Wang,
  • Gabor S Ungvari,
  • Helen F K Chiu,
  • Christoph U Correll,
  • David H K Shum,
  • David Man,
  • Deng-Tang Liu,
  • Yu-Tao Xiang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111562
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 11
p. e111562

Abstract

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ObjectiveWe aimed at investigating prospective memory and its socio-demographic and neurocognitive correlates in non-psychotic, first-degree relatives (FDRs) of patients with schizophrenia compared to patients with first episode schizophrenia (FES), and healthy controls (HCs).MethodsForty-seven FES patients, 50 non-psychotic FDRs (23 offspring and 27 siblings) of patients with chronic schizophrenia (unrelated to the FES group) and 51 HCs were studied. The Chinese version of the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (C-CAMPROMPT) was used to measure time-based prospective memory (TBPM) and event-based prospective memory (EBPM) performance. Other cognitive functions (involving respective memory and executive functions) were evaluated with standardized tests.ResultsAfter controlling for basic demographic characteristics including age, gender and educational level, there was a significant difference between FDRs, FES and HCs with respect to both TBPM (F(2,142) = 10.4, pConclusionsFDRs share similar but attenuated prospective memory impairments with schizophrenia patients, suggesting that prospective memory deficits may represent an endophenotype of schizophrenia.