FACTOTS AFFECTING COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION IN FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS

Abstract

This main purpose of the study was to find out different factors that affect the level of cognitive dysfunction in the patients suffering from first episode psychosis. The study was conducted on 80 patients with equal number of male and female patients (M=40, F=40) with age ranging from 16 to 45 years. It was hypothesized that male patients will exhibit high level of cognitive dysfunction than female patients, early intervention will result in lower level of cognitive dysfunction. Different scales were used in the study including PANSS and Mini-Mental state Examination.  Mini-mental state examination was used and the results shows that there is a slight difference in the level of cognitive dysfunction regarding gender with males having slightly higher level of cognitive dysfunction (M =25.93, SD =2.77) as compared to female (M=26.25, SD=2.24) but this difference was not statistically significant. Early intervention resulted in low level of cognitive dysfunction (M= 26.95, SD=1.78) as compared to late interventions (M=23.50, SD= 2.63). It was concluded that male individuals of first episode psychosis had high level of cognitive dysfunction than females. Early interventions will decrease the level of cognitive dysfunctions. Untreated individuals of first episode psychosis are having high level of cognitive dysfunction than treated individuals. Moreover, high negative PANSS score results in high level of cognitive dysfunction.