Background: Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in decision-making. Aim: To determine the effects of smoking status on delay discounting in schizophrenia in comparison to non-psychiatric controls. Method: Cross-sectional comparison of delay discounting across smoking and psychiatric status. Hypotheses: Individuals with schizophrenia were hypothesized to have higher rates of delay discounting than controls; Non-smokers with schizophrenia would have higher rates of delay discounting than smokers. Control smokers would discount future rewards more than non-smokers. Results: No significant differences in delay discounting were observed between psychiatric groups. Smokers with schizophrenia exhibited more delay discounting than non-smokers. Within the psychiatric group, former smokers discount rates were similar to current smokers. Conclusion: Delay discounting deficits in schizophrenia and modulation by cigarette smoking were not supported; our pattern of results in schizophrenia does suggest that deficits in delay discounting in these patients appears to be a trait rather than a state-dependent phenomenon.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/18920 |
| Date | 15 February 2010 |
| Creators | Moss, Taryn Gabrielle |
| Contributors | George, Tony Peter |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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