Do patients with schizophrenia and healthy elderly people show similar patterns of prospective memory performance?

Schizophrenia and normal aging have both been associated with structural and physiological changes in the prefrontal and temporal cortex and impairments in prospective memory (PM). This study aimed to compare PM performance in patients with schizophrenia, healthy older, and healthy younger individuals. Computerized event- and time-based PM tasks were administered to 30 patients with schizophrenia, 30 healthy older adults, and 30 healthy younger adults. The healthy older adults and patients with schizophrenia demonstrated deficits in time-based PM when compared with the healthy younger adults. However, only healthy older adults were found to be impaired in event-based PM when compared with the healthy younger adults. These findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia show a similar pattern of performance on one type but not another type of PM and provide only partial support for the accelerated aging hypothesis of schizophrenia.