Verbal association performance in schizophrenicpatients: Olanzapine vs typical antipsychotic treatments

Abstract

Previous reports have shown that schizophrenic subjects obtain higher scores in both communal and idiosyncratic response indexes than normal subjects in the Kent-Rosanoff Association Test. These results can be interpreted as a higher number of stereotyped behaviours and a worse integration in the group, which would lead us to determine an abnormal cognitive performance in some schizophrenic patients. On the other hand, atypical neuroleptics not only have less side effects but also generate a better cognitive performance that affects the verbal association indexes. The purpose of the present paper was to study the verbal association performance in schizophrenic patients treated with typical antipsychotics in order to compare the results with those obtained in schizophrenic patients treated with olanzapine. The results denote better verbal association performances in the latter group