Abstract. Background: The aim of the study is to compare the results of 4 cognitive tests in patients with schizophrenia and controls and to analyze them as possible discriminators between schizophrenia and mentally healthy individuals. Subjects and methods: The sample consists of 76 patients with schizophrenia and 72 healthy controls who are assessed with 4 cognitive tests – Trail making test A and B, Digit symbol test, Verbal fluency test. Descriptive statistics, T-student test, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) without and with controlling for the factors years of education and age of the subject, are used in the analysis of the results. Results: Patients with schizophrenia show significantly lower results on cognitive tests (Trail making test A and B, Digit symbol test, Verbal fluency test) compared to healthy controls. Conclusions: TMT-B and DST are sensitive and rapid methods that can be used to screen and assess neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Key words: schizophrenia, measurement of cognitive functions

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