Abusive childhood experiences are claimed to be more prevalent in people with schizophrenia (SCZ) than in the general population. The exposure to childhood trauma can have adverse effects on cognitive function.

To investigate whether there is a relationship between childhood trauma (CT) and cognitive functioning in patients with SCZ.

Fifty-eight outpatients with stable SCZ were recruited. The participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire retrospectively assessing five types of childhood trauma (emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect). They also completed a neurocognitive battery comprising the following tests: the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test–Revised (HVLT-R), the Letter Digit Substitution Test (LDST), the Stroop Test (ST), the “Double Barrage” of Zazzo (DBZ), the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), the Verbal Fluency (VF), the Trail Making Test-Part A (TMT-A) and the Digit Span (DS).

The patients with a history of physical abuse (P=0.03) or emotional neglect (P=0.07) performed worse at the delayed recall of the HVLT-R. A history of emotional neglect was also correlated to a significantly worse performance in theTMT-A (P<0.0001), while physical abuse was correlated to worse DS (P=0.015). High emotional abuse scores were significantly correlated to poorer efficiency in DBZ (P=0.025).

The results need replication, but underline the necessity of investigating biological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying these subjects’ cognitive impairment.