Abstract
Objective: The current study attempted to examine the prevalence of neurological soft signs and their relationships with schizotypal traits in individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) features.
Method: Sixty-four individuals with SPD-proneness and 51 without SPD-proneness were recruited for the present study. The soft signs subscales of the Cambridge Neurological Inventory were administered to all participants; the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) was administered to SPD-proneness and non-SPD-proneness participants.
Results: The SPD-proneness participants demonstrated significantly higher prevalence of soft signs than those without SPD-proneness. SPQ subscales were significantly associated with ratings of motor coordination, sensory integration and total soft signs.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that neurological soft signs are trait markers of schizophrenia.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Jifang Cui, Yongyu Deng, Xiaoyan Li, and Xiaojing Gao for their help with data collection and data entry. This study was supported partially by the Project-Oriented Hundred Talents Programme (O7CX031003), the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-YW-R-131), a grant from the National Science Fund China (30770723), and the National Basic Research Programme (973 Programme No. 2007CB512302/5).
Declaration of interest: None to be declared.