Verbal memory deficit in patients with schizophrenia: an important future target for treatment.

Despite more than two-thirds of patients with schizophrenia showing reductions in delusions and hallucinations following optimum available treatment, many are left with crippling cognitive impairments. Neurocognitive deficit is a core feature of schizophrenia, but the question arises as to whether efforts should be geared towards ameliorating and normalizing these deficits. Verbal memory dysfunction is one of the most consistently reported cognitive deficits and among the best predictors of functional outcome in schizophrenia. Therefore, a better understanding of the nature of this deficit could lead to treatments that not only improve the specific systems mediating the impairment, but could also have wider implications for clinical and social outcome.