Childhood abuse and verbal intelligence among adults diagnosed with first‐episode schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective: While many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia report childhood trauma, little is known about the relationship between childhood abuse and intelligence in this population. Authors hypothesized the abused individuals would show lower verbal IQ. Methods: This preliminary study compared the intelligence profile between 46 adults experiencing first-episode schizophrenic psychosis with and without a history of childhood physical or sexual abuse. Clinical assessment included the Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (K-WAIS) and an interview assessing history of sexual and repeated physical abuse before age 16. Results: The mean verbal IQ score of patients with a history of childhood abuse (n=21) was significantly lower than that of patients without a history of childhood abuse (n=25; p < .05). However, the mean number of years of education was also significantly lower in those with a history of childhood abuse (p < .001). In fact, an analysis of covariance controlling for education revealed no group differences in intelligence. Conclusions: Childhood trauma may contribute to low verbal intelligence of firstonset patients diagnosed with schizophrenia by leading to poor educational attainment. Assessment and management of first-onset patients with childhood abuse need to be tailored for their intellectual level.

Childhood maltreatment and treatment outcome in psychotic disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Patients with a psychotic disorder and CM also show a higher concentration of inflammatory markers compared to psychotic patients without CM , which is again predictive of non‐response to antipsychotics . In psychotic disorders, CM is further related to cognitive impairments, including general cognitive ability, working memory, attention, verbal skills and visual perceptual organization , which is associated with non‐response to treatments aimed at improving social and occupational functioning as well as to treatments aimed at reducing symptoms . Besides these neurobiological and cognitive alterations, CM has been suggested to be a crucial source of increased stress sensitivity in patients with a psychotic disorder , which can favour the occurrence of psychotic symptoms in response to potentially stressful events .…”