Relationship Between Cognitive Deficits and Duration of Illness in Early-Phase Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling illness in which the etiology is unknown and there is no cure; approximately 1% of people have this disorder that costs an estimated $60 billion annually. The cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia are a major facet of the disease and attribute to dysfunction in areas of attention, memory, and language. The inconsistencies and scarcity of literature examining the relationship between these cognitive deficits and duration of illness indicate need for this type of research. The primary aim of this study is to determine the correlation between cognitive deficits and duration of illness in early-phase schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that cognition and duration are indirectly related; this hypothesis will be tested using baseline cognitive data from A Double-Blind Trial of Adjunctive Valacyclovir to Improve Cognition in Early Phase Schizophrenia. These correlations can ultimately lead to the next step in discovering the cure for schizophrenia.