Features of the psychomotor coordination in adolescents with mental disorders in remission

The imbalance between the speed and accuracy of cognitive-motor operations can lead to the formation of abnormal behavioral programs fraught with serious negative consequences for the individual. For successful correction and prevention of social disadaptation in adolescents with nervous and mental diseases and functional disorders in mental sphere in general education schools, the peculiarities of their psychomotor activity should be taken into account.

We measured some parameters of psychomotor coordination in adolescents, students of a specialized school for psychiatric patients in remission. Based on their medical records, these students were divided into two groups: adolescents with neuropsychiatric diagnoses and sequelae of organic brain damage (n = 37) and adolescents with mental disorders without organic brain damage (n = 28). The control group consisted of healthy adolescents from a secondary school (n = 70). During simple motor tests, the trajectory of horizontal movement of the arm "from elbow to fingers" was recorded. During cyclic (right – left) movements of the lever within the range marked by external light markers, adolescents with mental disorders from both groups showed higher speed, but poorer accuracy and smoothness of movements than healthy participants. The latencies of the sensorimotor response to light and acoustic stimuli in adolescents with mental disorders without organic brain damage were longer than in the control group. These results are included in a comprehensive database for large-scale health monitoring in schoolchildren.