RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a chronic devastating illness with specific effects on cognitive function. A few studies have been performed on Asian patients. OBJECTIVE: To examine prevalence of cognitive impairment and associated factors in Thai patients with schizophrenia. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional study of patients with schizophrenia that were selected consecutively from a psychiatric outpatient clinic at Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University between June 2008 andDecember 2009 was conducted. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Thai version (MoCA-T) test was used to evaluate cognitive functions. Associated factors such as age of onset, type of antipsychotics were assessed by collecting data from medical records. Data analysis used descriptive statistics, and univariate analysis used Chi-square. RESULTS: Seventy-five patients with schizophrenia were recruited The majority of cases was single, male, had low education, and manifested paranoia. The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 81.3%. Significant factors associated with cognitive impairment were the year of education lower than 12 (OR = 9.25, 95% CI 1.90-45.03, p = 0.002) and those who had taken typical and combined antipsychotic drugs (OR = 5.97, 95% CI 1.66-21.55, p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Thai patients with schizophrenia showed a high prevalence of cognitive impairment. Therefore, clinicians should assess cognitive function and cognitive remedy