Neurological soft signs and cognition among inpatients with schizophrenia

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Evidence has shown that neurological soft signs are strongly associated with neurocognitive dysfunction. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to assess the association between NSS and cognitive impairments in a sample of inpatients with schizophrenia. The secondary objective was to explore the association between NSS total scores and functioning.

Methods: The study enrolled 95 inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia disorders and 45 healthy controls. The neurological evaluation scale (NES) was used to assess neurological soft sign while the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) was used to evaluate cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia.

Results: Patients with schizophrenia had significantly higher mean scores on the NES total test and subtests than the control group. Higher cognition was significantly associated with lower NES total and subtest scores. Higher functional independence was significantly associated with a lower NES total score (Beta = −.25), lower motor coordination subtest score (Beta = −.04), and lower others subtest (Beta = −.12). When taking the functional independence scale as the dependent variable, a higher NES total score was significantly associated with lower functioning (Beta = −0.03).

Conclusion: NSS were associated to neurocognitive impairments in almost every domain among patients with schizophrenia. Further prospective research is still needed to confirm this role.

KEYWORDS:

• Schizophrenia
• neurological soft signs
• cognition
• autonomy
• function

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Psychiatric hospital of the Cross – Lebanon (PHC), the Psychiatric hospital centre in Limoges (CH Esquirol) and the UMR INSERM 1094 Limoges – France. The authors would like to thank all the individuals (patients and employees) who participated in this study.

Authors’ contribution

BC designed the study; RF, CH drafted the manuscript; CH, BC, PS carried out the analysis and interpreted the results; SH, GH, BC, PS, HS assisted in drafting and reviewing the manuscript; RF, CH was responsible for data collection; BC, PS supervised the course of the article; HS revised the paper for English editing. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

Data can be made available under reasonable request form the corresponding author.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Ethical approval

In compliance with the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross Regulatory Research Protocol, the study protocol was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee (HPC-024-2018). The ethics informed consent form was used to gain consent in the form of a written agreement. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.