Received 19 July 2006; received in revised form 8 December 2006; accepted 14 December 2006. published online 19 February 2007.
Abstract
Deficits in attention and concentration are consistently identified as an enduring feature of schizophrenia and interfere significantly with successful social and occupational functioning in individuals with this illness. The short-term effects of hospitalization (2 weeks) on attention dysfunction in individuals with schizophrenia were studied in comparison to nonpsychiatric, healthy individuals. In addition, patients who remained stable on medications throughout hospitalization were compared to patients initiating an antipsychotic regimen upon admission. Attention and concentration were significantly enhanced after two weeks in the previously unmedicated group. However, improvement failed to reach the level of performance of comparison subjects.
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