[P300 and early components of the visual event related potentials were compared in 26 chronic schizophrenic patients and 20 healthy subjects. The correlation between visual evoked response and clinical, neurocognitive, biochemical variables was analysed in schizophrenic group. Event related potentials in response to rare visual stimuli were recorded from central and occipital sites and 20 electrophysiological parameters were determined. Reaction time and proportion of correct recognition were also detected. The schizophrenic patients showed significant reduction is P300 amplitude. Differences in other components between groups were also demonstrated. The seven most important parameters were evaluated by discriminant analysis. The prolonged negative components latency and delayed reaction time suggest that the stimulus classification process is slower in schizophrenics, Using canonical correlation analysis three factors were found to be significant. The data showed that electrophysiological abnormality was highly correlated with chronicity of the illness, severe psychopathological features and cognitive deficit but was uncorrelated with negative symptoms and serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity. These findings are compatible with other studies suggesting visual P300 has the characteristic of a state marker in schizophrenia.]
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