Sex differences in verbal IQ-performance IQ discrepancies among patients with schizophrenia and normal volunteers.

Abstract

Substantial verbal IQ (VIQ)-performance IQ (PIQ) discrepancies may reflect brain dysfunction. The authors examined 159 patients with schizophrenia (115 men and 44 women) or schizoaffective disorder (25 men and 19 women) and 79 normal participants (33 men and 46 women), calculated mean VIQ-PIQ discrepancy scores by sex and diagnosis, and identified persons with large VIQ-PIQ discrepancies (15-point difference in either direction). Schizophrenic/schizoaffective men had a larger mean VIQ-PIQ discrepancy than did other groups. The proportion of all patients with either VIQ > PIQ or PIQ > VIQ (17.8%) was not significantly different from that of normal participants (22.8%). However, significantly more men than women with schizophrenia exhibited a VIQ > PIQ pattern (20% vs. 3.2%). No unusual discrepancy patterns were noted among normal participants. Results were interpreted in light of theories of hemisphere dysfunction in schizophrenia.