Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T12:38:32.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relationship between Movement Planning and Psychopathology Profiles in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ashok K. Malla ,
Ross M. G. Norman ,
Omar Aguilar ,
Heather Carnahan  and
Leonard Cortese
Ashok K. Malla*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario, and Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario
Ross M. G. Norman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario
Omar Aguilar
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario
Heather Carnahan
Affiliation:
Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Ontario
Leonard Cortese
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario
*
Prof. A. K. Malla, Chief, Department of Psychiatry, Victoria Hospital, 375 South Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 4G5. Fax: (519) 6676539
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

There has been evidence that psychopathology in schizophrenia consists of three separable syndromes: reality distortion, disorganisation, and psychomotor poverty. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between planning and execution of movement and each of the syndromes in schizophrenia.

Method

Twenty-one right handed DSM–III–R schizophrenic patients performed a total of 80 trials of a motor movement task, varying distance of movement × size of the target × hand. Times taken to plan the movement (RT) and to carry it out (MT) were examined for their relationship with contemporaneous as well as lifetime profiles of the three syndromes in schizophrenia.

Results

Significant correlations are reported between RT and current as well as lifetime measures of disorganisation syndrome. Somewhat weaker correlations are reported between RT and psychomotor poverty, but only for the right-handed tasks. Partial correlations suggest that the influence of neuroleptic medication explains all but one of the correlations between psychomotor poverty and RT, but does not account for the relationship between disorganisation and RT. No other relationship emerged between any of the movement and symptom measures.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that dysfunction in movement planning is related primarily to concurrent disorganisation, as well as to the prominence of disorganisation over the patient's history.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 167 , Issue 2 , August 1995 , pp. 211 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, G. E., Delong, M. R. & Strick, D. L. (1986) Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 9, 357–381.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C. (1983) The Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). Iowa City, Iowa: The University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C. (1984) The Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). Iowa City, Iowa: The University of Iowa.Google Scholar
George, L. & Neufeld, J. (1985) Cognition and symptomatology in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 264–285.Google Scholar
Heinrichs, D. W. & Buchanan, R. W. (1988) Significance and meaning of neurological signs in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 11–18.Google Scholar
Henry, S. M. & Rogers, D. E. (1960) Increase response latency for complicated movements in memory drum series of neuromotor reaction. Journal of Research Quarterly, 31, 448–458.Google Scholar
Liddle, P. F. (1987) Schizophrenic syndromes, cognitive performance and neurological dysfunction. Psychological Medicine, 16, 49–57.Google Scholar
Liddle, P. F. & Morris, D. (1991) Schizophrenic syndromes and frontal lobe performance. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 340–345.Google Scholar
Liddle, P. F., Friston, K. J., Frith, C. D., et al (1992) Patterns of cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liddle, P. F., Haque, S., Morris, D. L. & Barnes, T. R. E. (1993) Dyspraxia and agnosia in schizophrenia. Behavioural Neurology, 6, 49–54.Google Scholar
Malenka, R. C., Angel, R. W., Hampton, B., et al (1982) Impaired central error-correcting behaviour in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 101–107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malla, A., Norman, R. M. G., Williamson, P., et al (1993) Three syndrome concepts of schizophrenia: a factor analytic study. Schizophrenia Research, 10, 143–150.Google Scholar
Manschreck, T. C., Maher, B. A., Rucklos, M. E., et al (1981) Deficient motor synchrony in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 321.Google Scholar
Manschreck, T. C., Maher, B. A., Rucklos, M. E., et al (1982) Disturbed voluntary motor activity in schizophrenic disorder. Psychological Medicine, 12, 73–84.Google Scholar
Turner, T. H. (1992) A Diagnostic Analysis of the Case Books of Tilehurst House Asylum (1845–1890). (Psychological Medicine, Monograph supplement 21). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.