Abstract

RODRIGUEZ-BORES RAMIREZ, Lorena; SARACCO-ALVAREZ, Ricardo; ESCAMILLA-OROZCO, Raúl  and  FRESAN ORELLANA, Ana. Validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) to detect cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Salud Ment [online]. 2014, vol.37, n.6, pp.517-522. ISSN 0185-3325.

Background Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder characterized by complex symptoms and impaired cognitive function, which has been considered a core feature. Research into cognition and schizophrenia over the past years has taken several different approaches including psychometric assessments. Objective The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) has been proven useful in detecting cognitive impairment in patients with several forms of dementia. Our aim was to assess its validity as a screening instrument for cognitive impairment in schizophrenic patients. Material and methods One hundred patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia were recruited at the Schizophrenia Clinic of the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico. The MoCA and MMSE were used to assess cognitive functions in these patients. For the concurrent validity, the MoCA, MMSE and PANSS were used, and existing methods were utilized to determine reliability and validation. Results According to the MMSE-education adjusted cut-off scores, only 8% of the patients in our sample were found with cognitive impairment in contrast with 69% of the total score obtained from the MoCA. The MoCA was tested for reliability with a Cronbach's alpha=0.71 similar to the one reported for MMSE (α=0.70) showing appropriate concurrent validity. Conclusions The MoCA is a cognitive tool with adequate psychometric properties as a screening instrument for the detection of mild cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. It also promises to fill an urgent unmet need for a brief screening tool capable of detecting patients with MCI and schizophrenia.

Keywords : Mild cognitive impairment; schizophrenia; Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale.