The study of executive functions of schizophrenic patient's with negative and positive symptoms and healthy people's by using Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)

This research sets out to study executive functions in the schizophrenic patients with negative and positive symptoms and a healthy group on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), as an index of frontal lobe functions.
For this purpose, 32 healthy people and 32 schizophrenic patients was selected the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) were carried out on schizophrenic patients. Results of these scales indicated that 14 patients had negative and 18 patients had positive symptoms. WCST were administrated for the samples. Data were analyzed by MANOVA.
Findings: results indicated that groups had significant differences in all five scales (Eta square=0/401, P=0/001, F (2, 61) =5/38). Groups in number of categories scale (P