Introduction:

Recent studies report a high prevalence of psychotic and substance use disorders sharing common brain mechanisms that may affect cognitive performance, response to treatment, the ability to commit to it and, consequently, increase the risk of relapse.

Objective:

To compare cognitive performance in patients with alcoholism and schizophrenia.

Material and Methods:

Observational study designed to evaluated 18 patients with schizophrenia and 32 with mental disorders due to alcohol consumption. The short neuropsychological battery NEUROPSI, validated in Spanish, was the main study instrument.

Results:

Significant differences were found between both groups in areas of executive function and long-term memory, with the sub-group of patients with schizophrenia showing greater deterioration levels.

Conclusion:

The results assist in explaining and understanding the difficulties that patients with schizophrenia experience in the functions of behavior regulation and information retrieval.

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