Abstract
BACKGROUND: Prescribing donepezil as an addition in reducing the cognitive dysfunctions among schizophrenia patients that have been given by antipsychotic (risperidone and olanzapine) is commonly used. Also, to determine the presence of the dysfunctions, an assessment is conducted by Montreal Cognitive Assessments based on Indonesian version (MoCA-Ina) to provide a more understandable test. AIM: To determine the score differences of MoCA-Ina between male patients of schizophrenia prescribed with only risperidone, and those with the addition of Donepezil within a certain interval of times. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: It is a pre-post-test experimental design with non-probability of consecutive sampling. METHODS: The study involved 48 of schizophrenia patients who have been prescribed fixed dose risperidone for 4 mg/day orally, and 24 people who were the intervention group were prescribed with the additional of 5 mg of donepezil per day started from the first until sixth week, followed by the increased dosages to 10 mg until twelfth week. These patients were recruited from the Public Hospital of Dr Pirngadi Medan, Indonesia, under the Department of Psychiatry. Then, the statistical data were analysed by Mann Whitney U, Friedman, and Wilcoxon, followed by analysing of SPSS version 21. RESULTS: The addition of five mg of Donepezil increased the MoCA-Ina score significantly compared to those who only prescribed with risperidone during all weeks of observation. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, the addition of donepezil increased the score level of the MoCA-Ina in the intervention group.