Executive Functions in Schizophrenia Patients

Background: Executive function is the most essential proficiency of every human being. Executive functions are composite cognitive processes essential for planning, organizing, guiding, revising, regulating, and evaluating behavior necessary to adapt efficiently to the atmosphere and to attain their goals. Aim: The present study has been undertaken to determine the executive functions in schizophrenia patients. Method: The sample consists of 90 schizophrenia patients and 90 normal control subjects, age range from 20 to 50 years based on a purposive sampling technique. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used to determine executive functions in schizophrenia patients. Result: Schizophrenia patients have exhibited executive dysfunctions in comparison to normal control subjects on WCST. Schizophrenia patients have taken more trials, lesser correct responses, committed more errors and percent errors, more perseverative responses and percent perseverative responses, more perseverative errors and percent perseverative errors, more non-perseverative errors and percent non-perseverative errors, impaired conceptual responses and percent conceptual responses, lesser category completed, lesser trials to complete first category and more failure to maintain set as compared to normal control subjects on WCST.