Suvvari Nagaraju1, Duriya Vijayalakshmi2
BACKGROUND
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness with severe disruptions in thought,
perception, language, and sense of self. Although there are a lot of recent
advances in pharmacotherapy, a large percentage of persons with Schizophrenia
remain treatment resistant or at least partially non-resistant to drugs. The recent
increase of interest in the neurobiology of Schizophrenia and other psychiatric
disorders, the emergence of neuropsychiatry, and the recent advances in
computerized analyses of EEG have resulted in a revival of interest in
electrophysiology among mental health professionals.
METHODS
This is a prospective observational study. A total of 84 subjects who were drug
naïve and diagnosed with Schizophrenia were included in the study by convenience
sampling. General information sheet to collect the socio-demographic and clinical
details, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Clinical Global Impression
scale, Electroencephalogram recordings were used. Data analysis was performed
by using the SPSS Software version 23. Descriptive statistics and correlational
statistics were used to analyse the collected data.
RESULTS
A total of 84 subjects who were diagnosed with Schizophrenia were included in
the study. Out of 84 patients, 22 were lost to follow up bringing the valid sample
of the study to 62. EEGs of the sample subjects were classified based on the
modified sample, EEGs of 45 (72.58 %) subjects were normal, EEGs of 13 (20.97
%) subjects were essentially normal, and EEGs of 4 (6.45 %) subjects were
classified as abnormal.
CONCLUSIONS
No statistically significant differences were found in Positive and negative
syndrome scale scores at baseline when compared between normal, essentially
normal and abnormal EEG groups of first episode schizophrenia subjects.
