Soft signs, attention, and startle in schizophrenia

Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice, 2016

Background and Aim: Neurological soft signs (NSSs) are “objectively measured, nonlocalizing abnormalities, not related to impairment of a specific brain region, reflecting improper cortical-subcortical and intercortical connections.” The possibility of NSS as an endophenotype in schizophrenia has been studied across the globe. We aimed at finding the prevalence of NSS among patients with schizophrenia as well as the associations of NSS between various sociodemographic and illness variables. Subjects and Methods: One hundred patients between the age group of 16 and 60 years were serially selected from the inpatient department of a tertiary care hospital who have been diagnosed as a case of schizophrenia according to the International Classification of Diseases version 10 during 1 year period. A semi-structured pro forma was used to collect various demographic as well as illness data, and subjects were clinically evaluated for NSS using neurological evaluation scale. Results: The prev...

Schizophrenia Research, 2010

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1990

References http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/157/5/735#otherarticles Article cited in: permissions Reprints/ permissions@rcpsych.ac.uk to To obtain reprints or permission to reproduce material from this paper, please write to this article at You can respond http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/eletter-submit/157/5/735

American Journal of Psychiatry, 2005

Objective: Neurological soft signs are frequently found in schizophrenia. They are indicators of both genetic liability and psychopathological symptoms. To further differentiate "trait" and "state" relations the authors compared the 1-year course of neurological soft signs in schizophrenia patients and comparison subjects. Method: Thirty-nine patients with firstepisode schizophrenia spectrum disorders were examined after remission of acute symptoms and 14 months later. Established instruments assessed diagnoses, psychopathological symptoms, predictors of outcome, handedness, and neurological soft signs. Twenty-two age-and gendermatched comparison subjects were also examined twice. Results: Neurological soft sign scores in patients were significantly elevated relative to comparison subjects at both measurement points. Whereas neurological soft signs remained stable in comparison subjects (time 1: mean=4.8, SD=3.3; time 2: mean=4.6, SD=3.9), they significantly decreased in patients (time 1: mean=15.7, SD=7.1; time 2: mean=10.1, SD=7.9). This effect was more pronounced in patients with a favorable versus a chronic course and was mainly accounted for by motor signs. Predictors of follow-up neurological soft sign scores were neurological soft sign levels at remission and compliance with treatment.

Official Journal of the Italian Society of Psychopathology, 2017

Objective Neurological soft signs in schizophrenia have been widely discussed, and have been of great interest to many psychiatrists and neuroscientists. Clinical gender differences have been widely detected in schizophrenia, and soft sign studies might help us relate these clinical differences to neurological abnormalities. Our aim was to look for gender differences in “developmental reflexes” soft signs in schizophrenia.

Dokladi na Bʺlgarskata akademiâ na naukite, 2023

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder characterised by a pronounced decline in mental, physical, and social functioning. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between the socio-cognitive and the subtle motor and sensory symptoms of schizophrenia, which are, respectively, represented by facial emotion recognition deficits (FERD) and neurological soft signs (NSS). Thus, we assessed 60 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. FERD was measured with the "Averaged Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces" set, and NSS was assessed with the Neurological Evaluation Scale. A strong and significant negative correlation was found between the NSS total score and the FERD total score (r = -0.7, p < 0.001). There was also a significant negative correlation between several of the subscores of both instruments. The results show that impaired social cognition is significantly associated with soft neurological disturbances in patients suffering from schizophrenia. Taken together, this reinforces the notion that schizophrenia is characterised by dysfunction and disconnection of a complex cerebral network, which can probably be influenced by psychosocial and physical nonpharmacological therapeutic interventions.

Frontiers in psychiatry, 2017

Neurological soft signs (NSS) represent minor neurological signs, which indicate non-specific cerebral dysfunction. In schizophrenia, their presence has been documented extensively across all stages of the disease. Until recently, NSS were considered an endophenotype or a trait phenomenon. During the past years, however, researchers report fluctuations of the NSS scores. To further clarify the question whether NSS exhibit state or trait components or both, studies that have investigated NSS longitudinally were reviewed. Studies which have assessed NSS longitudinally in adults suffering from schizophrenia, were searched for. The time frame was January 1966 to June 2017. Studies on teenagers were excluded because of interferences between brain maturation and pathology. Twenty-nine follow-up studies were identified. They included patients during different stages of their illness and mainly used established instruments for NSS assessment. Patients with a first episode or a remitting cou...