Neuropsychology and schizophrenia

Abstract

Although cognitive deficiency was noted in the first descriptions of schizophrenic disorder, it is in recent decades that this question has attracted more attention. This has given rise to an important body of research that has abounded in the description, quantification and specification of deficits. In this article we review the lines of research on the subject and the principal results, and we provide an overview of the different explanatory theories, from psychiatry and neuropsychology, that have attempted to give consistency to the wide accumulation of data. Finally, reference is made to the state of cognitive rehabilitation in schizophrenic disorder, in the understanding that this must be the final aim of neuropsychological research.