Cognitive studies of patients with Schizoaffective Disorder typically indicate that the cognitive function of these patients resembles that of patients with Schizophrenic Disorder more than it does patients with nonpsychotic Mood Disorder. In this study patients with Schizoaffective Disorder were compared with patients with Paranoid, Undifferentiated and Residual clinical subtypes on a number of measures of cognitive function. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that the cognitive function of Schizoaffective and Paranoid patients had more intact cognitive function that did Undifferentiated and Residual patients. Application of cluster analysis indicated that there were relative high percentages of Schizoaffective and Paranoid patients in a "Neuropsychologically Normal" cluster. It was concluded that Schizoaffective Disorder as well as other clinical subtypes of schizophrenia are cognitively heterogeneous, and it was suggested that a subgroup of patients with Schizoaffective Disorder may not differ in cognitive ability from patients with nonpsychotic Mood Disorder.

For this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a cognitive training program in improving cognitive function in patients with alcoholism comorbid with another neuropsychiatric disorder and going through the subacute phase of detoxication. We employed a randomized clinical trial design in which 20 subjects were assigned to a five-session cognitive rehabilitation program and 20 subjects were assigned to an attention placebo control condition. All subjects received a battery of cognitive tests for reasoning, attention, and visual-spatial abilities. These tests were repeated at the completion of the study. The training consisted of a number of component tasks designed to improve attention, speed of information processing, perceptual analysis, and visual-spatial cognition. We plotted performance on training results across sessions to detect evidence of learning effects. Comparisons of the cognitive tests revealed greater improvement in the training as compared to the attention placebo group on measures of attention and conceptual flexibility. We concluded that the training produced significant improvement over and above natural recovery during detoxication.

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