The objective of this 5 year academic award is to develop skills as a researcher, educator and clinician in geriatric psychiatry with a specialization in cognition and clinical outcomes in the elderly with chronic mental illness. The plan of the award will develop the nominee's skills in the following areas: 1) assessment of cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia and aging, 2) assessment of level of function service, and quality of life relevant to the older individual with schizophrenia, 3) knowledge of the impact of medications on cognition in schizophrenic elderly, and 4) clinical research methodology and statistics. These skills will be utilized in a pilot study of cognitive impairment in schizophrenic elderly and the relationship of cognitive impairment to level of function and other clinically relevant factors.
Specific aims of the pilot study are: 1) to identify cognitive deficits in elderly schizophrenic outpatients by comparing their cognitive performance to that of a sample of elderly without psychiatric illness, and 2) to examine the relationship between cognitive deficits in elderly schizophrenic outpatients and important clinical outcomes including level of function, quality of life, negative symptoms, and abnormal neurological signs.
