Many Patients With Schizophrenia Have Difficulty Reading

Patients suffering from schizophrenia tend to have difficulty reading which leads many with the disease to have reduced educational and job opportunities, though the shortcoming can be corrected.

Nadine Revheim, PhD, a research scientist at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York, and colleagues, examined 45 patients with schizophrenia, 19 high-risk patients and 65 control subjects. The participants were given tests to measure visual or phonological reading dysfunction. Neuropsychological and functional outcome measures were also obtained.

Schizophrenia patients displayed reading deficits that were far more severe (effect size >2.0) than would be predicted based on general neurocognitive impairments (effect size 1.0ā€“1.4), the researchers reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The deficits correlated highly with both visual and auditory sensory measures, including impaired mismatch negativity generation (r=0.62, N=51, P=0.0002).

More than 70% of schizophrenia patients met criteria for acquired dyslexia, with 50% reading below eighth-grade level. Reading deficits also correlated significantly (rp=0.4, N=30, P=0.03) with failure to match parental socioeconomic achievement, over and above contributions of more general cognitive impairment.

ā€œPatients with schizophrenia display severe deficits in reading ability that represent a potentially remediable cause of impaired socioeconomic function,ā€ the researchers concluded. ā€œSuch deficits are not presently captured during routine clinical assessment.ā€

http://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/many-patients-with-schizophrenia-have-difficulty-reading/article/369677/

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When Iā€™m in a negative swingā€¦ I can hardly concentrate enough to readā€¦ when Iā€™m having a break, Iā€™m too scattered to readā€¦

But the longer my mind is stableā€¦ the ability and enjoyment is coming backā€¦ I do have dyslexia. So I just have to read slow and re-read and ask others to check my workā€¦ plus I have grammar and spell check on ALL the time.

I still have a hard time with long technical text. Some words just taste a bit off and I canā€™t get past them.

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http://www.iheartintelligence.com

I know my son CAN read, he just can`t seem to concentrate for longā€¦

Yup, I have difficulty reading. I just canā€™t seem to see in straight lines very well, and my eyes skip over a lot of important words. Iā€™ve been like this forever.

I canā€™t concentrate nor stay sitting down very long unless Iā€™m on facebook or on this site. Usually I am up and about more I think itā€™s the stress of living on each pay check I get. Keeps me keeping up on the dishes at least.

ā€œMany Patients,ā€ Iā€™m sure is true, but statistics can mislead some people. So Iā€™ll just say that I read for hours every day and I know there are other avid readers on the forum.

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Years ago when I read books I received ā€˜thought streamsā€™ in my mind which was very disturbing. Nowadays I do not read any books at all, I do not really read any news either, just headlines, somehow I am lacking concentration.

ive always been a slow reader i guess i agree with this could be from my diagnosis

I do not read news articles either, just headlines, I do not read long sz posts, just snippets and so on, somehow my mind has no energy for long texts, in the past these ā€˜word triggeredā€™ voices streams in my mind were so bad when I read that I could not concentrate at all which is why stopped reading books.

I canā€™t read. I think itā€™s medicine related.

A concern, impaired socioeconomic function can bite down hard on emotional intelligence skills.

Once, I volunteered at my local library as someone who read books and articles on a radio station specifically broadcasted to the seeing impaired. Even though the seeing impaired may read their own books, they enjoyed the radio broadcast designed for them. A similar service can reach S-Patients who are ready to accept challenges.

This way, critical thinking skills and social preferences can be sharpened and communicated.

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