1999 issue 4

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Volume 8, issue 4

Varia

Attention deficits in children of schizophrenic parents

ANNA RABAN1, PAWEŁ HOLAS1
1. Katedry i Kliniki Psychiatrycznej AM w Warszawie
Postępy Psychiatrii i Neurologii, 1999, 8, 471-475
Keywords: Attention, schizophrenia, genetics

Abstract

The Continuous Attention Test(CAT) was administered to 17 adult children (aged17 to 50) of schizophrenic parents, and 17 adultchildren of healthy parents. The latter were selectedusing the matched-pairs procedure so as to be equivalentto the former in terms of age and education.Subjects from the risk group had a lower performancelevel on the CAT as compared to the controls.These preliminary findings suggest that continuousattention deficits in children of schizophrenic parentsmay turn out to be an indicator of geneticsusceptibility to schizophrenia.

Address for correspondence:
Dr Anna Raban, l Klinika Psychiatryczna AM,
ul. Nowowiejska 27, 00-665 Warszawa