Cognitive functioning throughout adulthood and illness stages in individuals with psychotic disorders and their unaffected siblings

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  • Eva Velthorst
  • Josephine Mollon
  • Robin M. Murray
  • Lieuwe de Haan
  • Inez Myin Germeys
  • David C. Glahn
  • Celso Arango
  • Els van der Ven
  • Marta Di Forti
  • Miguel Bernardo
  • Sinan Guloksuz
  • Philippe Delespaul
  • Gisela Mezquida
  • Silvia Amoretti
  • Julio Bobes
  • Pilar A. Saiz
  • María Paz García-Portilla
  • José Luis Santos
  • Estela Jiménez-López
  • Julio Sanjuan
  • Eduardo J. Aguilar
  • Manuel Arrojo
  • Angel Carracedo
  • Gonzalo López
  • Javier González-Peñas
  • Mara Parellada
  • Cem Atbaşoğlu
  • Meram Can Saka
  • Alp Üçok
  • Köksal Alptekin
  • Berna Akdede
  • Tolga Binbay
  • Vesile Altınyazar
  • Halis Ulaş
  • Berna Yalınçetin
  • Güvem Gümüş-Akay
  • Burçin Cihan Beyaz
  • Haldun Soygür
  • Eylem Şahin Cankurtaran
  • Semra Ulusoy Kaymak
  • Nadja P. Maric
  • Marina M. Mihaljevic
  • Sanja Andric Petrovic
  • Tijana Mirjanic
  • Cristina Marta Del-Ben
  • Laura Ferraro
  • Charlotte Gayer-Anderson
  • Peter B. Jones
  • Nordholm, Dorte
  • Glenthøj, Birte Yding
  • EU-GEI High Risk Study

Important questions remain about the profile of cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders across adulthood and illness stages. The age-associated profile of familial impairments also remains unclear, as well as the effect of factors, such as symptoms, functioning, and medication. Using cross-sectional data from the EU-GEI and GROUP studies, comprising 8455 participants aged 18 to 65, we examined cognitive functioning across adulthood in patients with psychotic disorders (n = 2883), and their unaffected siblings (n = 2271), compared to controls (n = 3301). An abbreviated WAIS-III measured verbal knowledge, working memory, visuospatial processing, processing speed, and IQ. Patients showed medium to large deficits across all functions (ES range = –0.45 to –0.73, p < 0.001), while siblings showed small deficits on IQ, verbal knowledge, and working memory (ES = –0.14 to –0.33, p < 0.001). Magnitude of impairment was not associated with participant age, such that the size of impairment in older and younger patients did not significantly differ. However, first-episode patients performed worse than prodromal patients (ES range = –0.88 to –0.60, p < 0.001). Adjusting for cannabis use, symptom severity, and global functioning attenuated impairments in siblings, while deficits in patients remained statistically significant, albeit reduced by half (ES range = –0.13 to –0.38, p < 0.01). Antipsychotic medication also accounted for around half of the impairment in patients (ES range = –0.21 to –0.43, p < 0.01). Deficits in verbal knowledge, and working memory may specifically index familial, i.e., shared genetic and/or shared environmental, liability for psychotic disorders. Nevertheless, potentially modifiable illness-related factors account for a significant portion of the cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMolecular Psychiatry
Volume26
Pages (from-to)4529–4543
ISSN1359-4184
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

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© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

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