Here goes, this is a complex one I think. I started becoming symptomatic in 01 thinking my neighbors were out to harm me and that I could read their thoughts.
Then in 02 I had terrible panic attacks along with voices saying the gov was beaming electromagnetic weapons at me. I started to believe it because it didnt' feel like a normal panic attack at all.
From 02 to lat 04 I did ok, but still heard voices. I noticed that my cognition was not as good for remembering stuff I read, and I was 27, 28 at the time. But thinking back even in college I struggled with memory and certain problem solving tasks. So at age 28 I think my cognition was still about the same.
Then unexpectadly in early of Jan 05 I became paraonid that a group of peers from my high school were out to kill me. I was living in a private group home at the time and the director checked me into a mental hospital. To make a very long story short I heard non-stop voices of a persecution kind saying I was being tortured or that I would die. I also noticed a severe drop in overall cognition around this time. I was in a severe mental fog and could barely read or even think. I noticed the thoughts in my head seemed far softer over just a week.
So I stabalized on meds and was moved into a public group home where I had no energy, had high anxiety, and felt like total garbage just smoking and lying in bed barely able to comprehend the television.
This lasted for over 2 years! And finally in early 08 I got my own apartment and gradually over time I became more cognitively with it and could read a bit again, but still forgot the vast majority of what I read.
I continued to make progress, went to a psychologist, psychiatrist and two neurologists and had two MRI's which both came out normal.
So now over just the last 4 plus months I've noticed a decline in my memory. I'm 33 now and alzheimer's or other dementia's don't run in my family. But I will forget things like cars I've owned, only to recall the info later. I forget famous celebrities that I used to know well, and I forget things that I would normally have known.
I have poverty of thought, presumably from the schizophrenia, and I theorize that may or may not have something to do with it.
I'm on antipsychotics and antidepressions, can still write fairly well, but make spelling mistakes more than I used to, but I was always not a great speller.
I passed the mini mental state exam several times and did average on a neuropsyche test, with my math being substantially poorer than when in high school and college.
My verbal IQ was 117 and overall was 103. I was far smarter prior to the schizophrenia.
So my question boils down to, is this cognitive decline due to the schiz? Or is there two things going on here? Is this a precursor to some kind of dementia like EOAD? Of am I in a mild stage of it already?
I don't have any confusion, can drive just fine, and can plan ahead, all tasks that many people with schizophrenia often have trouble with.
So that's me in a nutshell. Again, I had cognitive impairment from an acute psychotic episode, and I've improved, now I'm noticing substantial lapses in my memory, and continue to have poverty of thought and other negative sz symptoms.
Thank you for your time.
Devon
Well I've read up enough on schizophrenia, various studies, articles and talked to psychiatrists who specialize in this field to know that one of the core features of schizophrenia is having substantial to severe cognition problems including memory, spatial reasoning, abstract thinking including problem solving, and since it's been said that almost all of the brain of schizophrenic subjects is involved often schizophrenic cognitive impariment can mimic that of Alzheimer's, and some severely cognitively impaired patients with schizophrenia actually do worse on certain memory test than patients with Alzheimer's.
Again, My cognitive problems happened very drastically, and over the period of a week in Jan of 05, due to a psychotic episode, so it was NOT the meds. Since then my cognition has improved a lot, but I also know that according to studies cognitive impairment in schizophrenia usually stays about the same over the years with slight fluctuations.
Getting back to my severe cognitive decline in early 05/ late 04, from that point on I had, and still have, trouble remembering what I did that day, which I know can be a symptom of Alzheimer's. The problem is with me this happened over a period of a few days to a week, which is not consistant with an Alzheimer's progression, as it moves usually slowly.
The main thing I'm concerned about is my APPARENT recent problems with memory such as famous celebs, facts and figures, and people I know, but not people I know really well. Only one time did I forget the name of my pdoc for about half an hour, then remembered. So I'm concerned that my memory MAY have gotten worse, however I also am much more acutely aware of any cognitive changes in the last year or so, as I was in too much of a daze horrific state for a few years after this acute episode. So it is complex and I will address things with my neuro today.