Effect of antipsychotic medication on speed of information processing in schizophrenic patients

Abstract

The effects of antipsychotic medication and schizophrenia on speed of information processing were evaluated. Medicated (n = 20) and unmedicated (n = 16) schizophrenic patients showed more evidence of slow information processing than did depressed control subjects (n = 20). The medicated schizophrenic patients had higher levels of general psychopathology but showed superior information processing speed compared with the unmedicated schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenic patients are slow information processors and antipsychotic medication probably does not cause, and may actually reverse, slowness of information processing in schizophrenic patients.