ABSTRACT
References 716
More than a century ago, Emil Kraepelin identified a disorder that he termed ‘dementia praecox’. He argued that the two key features of this disorder were a progressive and deteriorating course of cognitive and functional processes (‘dementia’) and an early age of onset in previously healthy individuals (‘praecox’). Since Kraepelin’s seminal description of the key features of the disorder that is now known as schizophrenia, researchers have attempted to clarify whether:
schizophrenia is associated with cognitive and functional deficits;
the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia show a progressive and deteriorating course; and
schizophrenia ultimately leads to the development of dementia.
