Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the cognitive function of patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Method: 36 TRS patients and 57 non-TRS and 50 healthy controls subjects were enrolled in the study. Psychiatric symptoms (except for healthy controls) and cognitive functioning were evaluated. Results: The patients has a more severe cognitive impairment than normal group. TRS was worse than non-TRS patients (P<0.05). The factors related to cognitive impairment in patients with multiple regression analysis, the results showed that high anticholinergic activity of antipsychotics had debilitating effect on immediate memory (β=12.242, t=11.271, P=0.000) and delayed memory (β=7.391, t=3.354, P=0.001), negative symptoms were independent risk factors for attention (β=11.147, t=9.436, P=0.002). Conclusion: Results of this study indicate that cognitive deficits are more robust in TRS patients than in non-TRS subjects, and are associated with the treatment with antipsychotics that exert high anticholinergic activity as well as clinical symptoms.

Schizophrenia; Treatment resistance; Cognition; Antipsychotics