SU118. Cognitive Impairment and Clozapine Response in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia—A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Response to clozapine is proposed to be a marker by which patients with schizophrenia can be stratified into biologically distinct subgroups. While cognitive impairment is a core symptom of schizophrenia, few studies have examined the relationship between cognitive function and response to clozapine in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Method(s): This study included 16 patients with schizophrenia who responded to clozapine (age: 43.2 +/- 11.9 y; female 37.5%), 19 patients who did not respond to clozapine (44.6 +/- 11.3 y; 26.3%), and 19 healthy controls (HC) (44.1 +/- 12.5 y; 31.6%). Participants were age and sex matched. The following cognitive assessments were administered: Executive Interview (EXIT), Finger Tapping (FT), Grooved Pegboard (GP), Letter Fluency (F, A, and S) (LF), Letter-Number Span (LNS), Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE), Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), Stroop Test, Trail Making Test A and B (TMT), and Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR). Cognitive functions were compared among the 3 groups using analyses of variance with a signifcant P-value less than 0.0022 (0.05/23). If there was a signifcant difference among them, post hoc Tukey's tests were conducted with a signifcant P-value less than 0.0038 (0.05/13). Result(s): PANSS total, positive subscale, and global subscale scores were higher in nonresponders than in responders (P