Cognitive impairments in schizophrenia play an important role in the social and functional outcome in patients with this disorder. The ways of assessing cognitive functions are particularly important. Similar approaches among researchers may help compare data from different centers.

The aim of the study was to provide normative data for the Russian population for the internationally validated tool - the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia. The BACS was developed especially for the assessment of cognition in patients with schizophrenia. It has a brief administration and scoring time, portability, repeatability and availability of alternate forms. The BACS has been already validated in English, French, Japanese, Italian, German, Hindi and Spanish. The English version of the BACS was translated into Russian. The Russian version was back-translated into English by a mother tongue speaker and it was approved by the author (R.Keefe).

204 healthy subjects from the general population were included in the study. The sample was comparable to the population distribution on the variables of sex and educational level as determined by all-Russia census of 2002. The raw cognitive data collected in the study were then converted into standard values (in the form of z- and T-values) which allow estimation of standard scores and a composite index adjusted for age and sex.

The normative data obtained on this scale will allow the BACS to be used effectively in national clinical practice and research and will provide an opportunity to evaluate cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy people.