Mismatch negativity at acute and post-acute phases of first-episode schizophrenia

• Published in: European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience Vol. 258; no. 3; pp. 179 - 185
• Main Authors: Devrim-Üçok, Müge, Keskin-Ergen, H. Yasemin, Üçok, Alp
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht D. Steinkopff-Verlag 01.04.2008; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Acute Disease; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use; Attention - physiology; Case-Control Studies; Contingent Negative Variation - physiology; Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Pattern Recognition, Physiological - physiology; Psychiatry; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Schizophrenia - drug therapy; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; mismatch negativity; first-episode; schizophrenia; longitudinal; post-acute phase; acute phase
• ISSN: 0940-1334; 1433-8491
• DOI: 10.1007/s00406-007-0772-9

The objective of this study was to evaluate the mismatch negativity (MMN) in patients with first-episode schizophrenia at acute and post-acute phases in order to determine the contribution of trait and/or state features to MMN disturbances in schizophrenia. Subject groups comprised 30 patients with first-episode schizophrenia at the acute phase and 34 healthy controls. Ten patients were neuroleptic-naive during testing at the acute phase. Twenty-one patients were retested at the post-acute phase when their symptoms improved. All patients were taking antipsychotic medication at the post-acute retest session. MMN amplitude of the patients at acute phase did not differ from controls. However, MMN amplitude at post-acute phase was reduced compared to both controls and acute phase. Similar results were obtained when the analyses were confined to neuroleptic-naive patients. The sensory memory functions indexed by MMN seem to be unaffected at the onset of schizophrenia but deteriorated during the post-acute illness phase. MMN reduction at the post-acute phase might be emerged from antipsychotic medication.