Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder that affects mainly cognition and runs in chronic deteriorating course.

Objective: The study aimed to assess the cognitive function of schizophrenic patients compared to healthy control and verify the effect of atypical anti-psychotics on cognition in schizophrenia.

Patients & Methods: This case-control study included 3 groups, group 1: 20 newly diagnosed patients with schizophrenia, group 2: 20 schizophrenic patients receiving atypical antipsychotics and group 3: 20 control healthy persons. The participants of the three groups were subjected to clinical assessment, that included detailed psychiatric interview, neurological and general examination. Cognitive evaluation of both schizophrenic and control groups by, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), stroop test (computerized version), the Trail Making test, continuous performance test and Wechsler Memory scale (WMS).

Results: The schizophrenic patients had worse results than healthy control group in all neuropsychological tests: The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop Test, The Trail Making Test (TM), Continuous performance test (CPT) and The Wechsler memory scale (WMS).The impairment was more in the newly diagnosed patients without treatment.



Conclusions and clinical implications: Patients with schizophrenia suffered from cognitive impairment which mostly involved the different cognitive domains in different combinations, manifested least way in patients who received atypical antipsychotics.