Coping with Attentional Disorders as a Systemic Process in Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

Around the turn of the last century, Kraepelin and Bleuler developed the theory that some schizophrenic symptoms can be traced back to attentional disorders and in contemporary experimental research on attention, this reappears in the thesis that attentional disorders cause a vulnerability to schizophrenia. Empirical studies (Nuechterlein & Dawson, 1984) showed that attentional deficits before, during, and after an episode of such illness are consistent with the vulnerability model. However, if attentional disorders really do play a fundamental role in the development of schizophrenic symptoms, how do patients handle their more-or-less intact attentional capabilities? Thus, at the current level of research, the relevant question is not only whether attentional disorders occur, but – more and more – how such patients process information in the presence of these disorders.