Objective: Schizophrenia is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder and the cognitive deficit is the central feature of schizophrenia. Cognitive impairment is related to clinical symptoms, social and functional outcome. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical usability of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) as a screening instrument for cognitive impairment in schizophrenic patients alone, and in correlation with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).
Methods: This clinical study included 31 patients with diagnosed schizophrenia. Patients were selected from Psychiatric Clinic, Erenkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders (ERSHEAH) in the period between March 2013 and June 2013. For the assessment of cognitive impairment, we used Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).
Results: From the total number of patients (n=31), 6/31 (19.4%) were males and 25/30 (80.6%) were females; mean duration of illness was 9,86±8,22 years; mean total PANSS score was 99,20±22,48; mean MoCA score was 17,54±4,80 (>24 normal) and mean MMSE score was 23,48±3,65(>26 normal).There was a significant difference between these two screening tools in terms of measurement of cognitive impairment (X²=20.16, p=0,001).
Conclusions: Our preliminary findings may suggest that MoCA scale performs well in detecting mild and moderate cognitive impairments of schizophrenia patients compared to MMSE.