Some Electrographic Differences Between Chronic Schizophrenic Patients and Normal Subjects

Abstract

It is generally agreed that schizophrenic patients do not present characteristic electroencephalographic patterns on the basis of which they might be clearly distinguished from normal individuals or other psychiatric patients. Nevertheless, ever since the early description by Pauline Davis [3] of dysrhythmic and “choppy” appearing records, there have been various reports indicating that as a group schizophrenic patients tend to show statistically significant differences on a variety of electrographic measures. Kennard and Schwartzman [7] found abnormal frequency-analyses graphs in psychotic patients and noted that disorganization was more pronounced in the more severely and acutely disturbed individuals. They also felt that the finding was related to poor “organization among various cortical areas rather than to variability of pattern as recorded successively from a single area.” A similar concept was recently advanced by Bruck [1], who found that significant differences existed in inter- and intrahemispheric synchrony ratios between normal individuals and schizophrenic patients. He also reported that the mean voltages of the electroencephalograms (EEGs) were higher in the control group than in the group of schizophrenic patients.