Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science and the Center on Aging, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2012 Jan;20(1):29-40. doi: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e31823bc08c.
There are varying results regarding the conjoint influence of aging and schizophrenia on cognitive abilities. Previous studies have been limited by restricted age ranges among schizophrenia and psychiatrically healthy control samples as well as small numbers of control participants.
To quantify the association between age and cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia and psychiatrically healthy older adult controls and to determine if age-associated changes in cognitive performance were different in the two groups.
People with schizophrenia (n = 226) and psychiatrically healthy individuals (n = 834) ranging in age from 40 to older than 80 years were compared on a battery of neuropsychological tests. To directly compare the impact of age on cognitive performance, age was also regressed on performance in the two samples.
The performance of psychiatrically healthy adults age 70 and older was superior to the performance of the youngest patients with schizophrenia (age 40-49) years on measures of working and episodic memory, executive function, and psychomotor speed. Regression analyses indicated that age effects on cognition were significantly greater for schizophrenia patients on measures of verbal learning and speed of processing. Within both the schizophrenia group, and psychiatrically healthy adults, the greatest age-related differences in performance seemed to occur for individuals aged more than 70 years.
In this cross-sectional study, the present findings underscore the fact that schizophrenia is associated with cognitive impairment across all ages and that older schizophrenia patients experience relatively greater age associated differences in cognitive functioning than healthy individuals. These findings have wide-ranging implications regarding the ability of older patients with schizophrenia to function independently and for the development of treatment strategies.
关于衰老和精神分裂症对认知能力的共同影响，结果不一。既往研究受到精神分裂症和精神健康对照样本的年龄范围限制以及对照参与者人数较少的限制。
定量分析精神分裂症患者和精神健康老年对照者的年龄与认知表现之间的关联，并确定两组认知表现的年龄相关性变化是否不同。
比较了年龄在 40 岁及以上的 226 名精神分裂症患者和 834 名精神健康个体在一系列神经心理学测试上的表现。为了直接比较年龄对认知表现的影响，还将年龄回归到两个样本的表现中。
年龄在 70 岁及以上的精神健康成年人在工作记忆和情景记忆、执行功能和心理运动速度方面的表现优于最年轻的精神分裂症患者（年龄 40-49 岁）。回归分析表明，在言语学习和处理速度方面，年龄对认知的影响在精神分裂症患者中更为显著。在精神分裂症组和精神健康成年人中，表现的最大年龄相关差异似乎发生在年龄超过 70 岁的个体中。
在这项横断面研究中，目前的发现强调了这样一个事实，即精神分裂症与所有年龄段的认知障碍有关，并且与健康个体相比，老年精神分裂症患者的认知功能与年龄相关的差异更大。这些发现对年龄较大的精神分裂症患者独立生活的能力以及治疗策略的制定具有广泛的意义。
