• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.191-201
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• 2006

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the cognitive functions would be correlated with psychotic symptoms and whether antipsychotic treatments would affect the cognitive functions after 8 weeks. Methods : The thirty-five schizophrenic patients were conducted in this study. The psychopathology was measured using PANSS. The memory function, executive function, and sustained attention were measured using Memory Assessment Scale(MAS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST), and Vigilance(VIG) and Cognitrone(COG) in Vienna Test System. After 8 weeks of antipsychotic treatment, we retested the cognitive tests. Results : 1) The cognitive tests after the 8 week's treatment showed significant improvements in memory and executive function in the schizophrenic patients. On the other side, sustained attention did not show improvement. 2) The change of PANSS were correlated with perseverative response, perseverative error and total correct in WCST at baseline. WCST scores at baseline were correlated with negative symptoms, but not positive ones. Conclusion : These study suggests that 1) the impaired sustained attention could be a vulnerability marker in schizophrenia, 2) memory & executive function deficit could be reversible after treatment, and 3) medication might have a benefit in improving the cognitive functions in schizophrenia. Furthermore, the data supports that the better premorbid executive function was, the more favorable was the treatment response in schizophrenic patients. Finally, this study indicates that executive function might be an index of treatment improvement.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.92-100
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate 1) the neuropsychological deficits with major depressive disorder(MDD) in depressed state and 2) the changes of neuropsychological dysfunctions during depressed episodes and remitted periods in the MDD group. Methods : 12 patients with MDD and 70 normal controls who were diagnosed and classified by DSM-IV and SCID-IV interview participated in this study. The psychopathology was measured using the Hamilton rating scale for depression(HAM-D) and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS). The memory function, executive function, and sustained attention were measured by a trained psychologist using the Korean version of Memory Assessment Scale(K-MAS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST), and Vigilance(VIG) and Cognitrone (COG) in Vienna Test System. After 6 weeks of treatment, we retested the cognitive tests in order to measure the cognitive functions in remitted states. Results : Patients with MDD achieved significantly lower score in sentence immediately recall, verbal memory score and total memory score of the K-MAS, total errors of the WCST, response time of Vigilance and response time at "Yes" response of Cognitrone than normal controls at baseline. After 6 weeks of medication, the psychiatric symptoms in the patient group were attenuated, and most of the neuropsychological functions including attention, memory, and frontal/executive function were improved except for response time of Cognitrone. Conclusions : This study provides evidence for distinct neuropsychological deficits in patients with MDD on their depressed states and remitted periods. The impairment on response time remains after remission, and this would be a trait marker of major depressive disorder.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2002

Neurocognitive research focusing on cognitive deficits in Depression has resulted in several important but yet potentially contradictory findings. Much literature documents the presence of significant neurocognitive impairments in depressive patients. Studies have shown that dysthymic disorder patients demonstrate a diffuse pattern of cognitive impairment which is frequently indistinguishable from that of focal braindamaged patients. Some reports have suggested that there is a focal pattern of deficit, such as anterior cingulate dysfunction, frontal lobe impairment, or dysfunction of the temporal-limbic cortex. The aim of this study is to evaluate the neurocognitive functions in dysthymic disorder patients, and to compare the functions with those of major depressive disorder patients. The subjects are 17 dysthymic disorder patients. And their neurocognitive functions are compared with those of 23 major depressive episode patients. Patients with a history of neurologic disease, alcohol dependence, substance abuse and mental retardation are excluded. They are assessed with a part of Vienna Test System which is computerized neurocognitive function tests and can evaluate attention, eductive ability, reproductive ability, visuoperceptual analysis, vigilance, visual immediate memory, the speed of information-processing, judgement, and fine motor coordinations. There are no other specific difference between two groups, except the result of cognitrone test. This study provides information about the neurocognitive functions and some difference between major depressive disorder patients and carefully diagnosed dysthymic disorder patients.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.242-255
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• 1997

Characteristics of attention deficit of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) were investigated by administering six computerized attention tests of Vienna Test System and four neuropsychological tests to children aged 6-12, with ADHD(n=21) and age-matched normal control children(n=22). The findings indicated that ADHD children show lower level of vigilance, more decline of performance in vigilance task on time, and impaired preparedness to response. They also have selective attention deficit on monitoring tasks, but did not have sustained attention deficit compared with normal control children. On the tasks wich overload their information processing capacity, ADHD children show more impulsive response pattern than normal control children. The performance of ADHD was worse than control on the neuropsychological tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction. The presense 'These' attention deficits supports the theory that the defect of ADHD is due to the dysfunction of more than one brain region, including brain stem reticular formation and frontal lobe.