Teaching Unit of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Valencia, Blasco-Ibáñez 17, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
BMC Psychiatry. 2010 Jun 15;10:47. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-10-47.
Atypical antipsychotics provide better control of the negative and affective symptoms of schizophrenia when compared with conventional neuroleptics; nevertheless, their heightened ability to improve cognitive dysfunction remains a matter of debate. This study aimed to examine the changes in cognition associated with long-term antipsychotic treatment and to evaluate the effect of the type of antipsychotic (conventional versus novel antipsychotic drugs) on cognitive performance over time.
In this naturalistic study, we used a comprehensive neuropsychological battery of tests to assess a sample of schizophrenia patients taking either conventional (n = 13) or novel antipsychotics (n = 26) at baseline and at two years after.
Continuous antipsychotic treatment regardless of class was associated with improvement on verbal fluency, executive functions, and visual and verbal memory. Patients taking atypical antipsychotics did not show greater cognitive enhancement over two years than patients taking conventional antipsychotics.
Although long-term antipsychotic treatment slightly improved cognitive function, the switch from conventional to atypical antipsychotic treatment should not be based exclusively on the presence of these cognitive deficits.
与传统神经阻滞剂相比，非典型抗精神病药能更好地控制精神分裂症的阴性和情感症状；然而，它们改善认知功能的能力仍存在争议。本研究旨在探讨长期抗精神病药物治疗与认知功能变化的关系，并评估抗精神病药物的类型（传统与新型抗精神病药物）对认知表现随时间的影响。
在这项自然主义研究中，我们使用了综合神经心理学测试来评估基线时接受传统（n=13）或新型（n=26）抗精神病药物治疗的精神分裂症患者样本，并在两年后进行评估。
无论药物类别如何，持续的抗精神病治疗与言语流畅性、执行功能、视觉和言语记忆的改善有关。服用非典型抗精神病药物的患者在两年内的认知改善程度并不比服用传统抗精神病药物的患者大。
尽管长期抗精神病治疗能轻微改善认知功能，但从传统抗精神病药物转换为非典型抗精神病药物的治疗不应仅仅基于存在这些认知缺陷。
