Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

This study was performed to know the relationship between neurologic soft signs (NSS) and clinical variabiles such as psychopathology, history of illness, and premorbid social adjustment in patients with schizophrenia. The authors evaluated NSS in 31 patiens with schizophrenia using the structured tool for measuring neurologic abnormalities, Neurological Evaluation Scale-Korean Version(NES-K). Relationships between NSS and clinical variables such as duration of illness, intensity of precipitating stressors, duration of outpatient treatment, schooling, peer relationship, total duration of unemployment, total days of psychiatric admission, age, total days of being medicated, age at the first psychiatric admission, frequency of admissions, content of treatment, social adjustment, and severity of symptoms were analyzed. Differences between paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenics were examined. In addition, Differences between patients with schizophrenia who have predominant positive symptoms and who have predominant negative symptoms were examined too. Total scores of NES-K were correlated with lower schooling(γ=0.44, p<0.01). Scores of motor coordination subcategory were correlated with poor peer relationship(γ=0.67, p<0.001). Other clinical variables were not correlated with any scores of NES-K Paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenics were not different in scores of NES-K. Also positive and negative schizophrenics were not different in scores of NES-K. Most clinical variables except schooling and peer relationship were not related with NSS. This result indicated that the meaning of these signs was not fully be understood. Introduction of the new classification concenpts such as deficit or non-deficit syndrome will be helpful to elucidate the meaning of NSS in patients with schizophrenia.

Keywords Neurologic soft signs;Schizophrenia;Clinical variables;Deficit syndrome.