Effectiveness of a two-phase cognitive rehabilitation intervention for severely impaired schizophrenia patients

Several small-N, uncontrolled reports have demonstrated that the behavioral technique of attention shaping has significantly increased attention span among severely ill schizophrenia patients. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of using an individually administered intervention for improv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Psychological medicine Vol. 35; no. 6; p. 829
Main Authors:	Silverstein, Steven M, Hatashita-Wong, Michi, Solak, Beth Anne, Uhlhaas, Peter, Landa, Yulia, Wilkniss, Sandra M, Goicochea, Claudia, Carpiniello, Kelly, Schenkel, Lindsay S, Savitz, Adam, Smith, Thomas E
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 01-06-2005
Subjects:	Adult Attention Cognition Disorders - diagnosis Cognition Disorders - etiology Cognition Disorders - rehabilitation Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Female Humans Male Neuropsychological Tests Neuropsychology - methods Reinforcement (Psychology) Schizophrenia - complications Severity of Illness Index
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Summary:	Several small-N, uncontrolled reports have demonstrated that the behavioral technique of attention shaping has significantly increased attention span among severely ill schizophrenia patients. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of using an individually administered intervention for improving sustained attention, Attention Process Training (APT), followed by an attention-shaping procedure within the context of an ongoing skills training group. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either the APT and attention-shaping sequence (n = 18) or equivalent hours of treatment in the same intensive behavioral rehabilitation program (n = 13). Results indicated dramatic improvements in attentiveness in the cognitive rehabilitation condition compared with the control condition, which demonstrated essentially no change in attentiveness over the 12 weeks of treatment. The attention-shaping intervention appeared to account for the majority of the effect. In contrast to the observational data, performance on neuropsychological tests was unaffected by the cognitive interventions. This two-phase intervention demonstrated effectiveness in promoting attentive behavior among chronic schizophrenia patients with severe attentional impairment.
ISSN:	0033-2917
DOI:	10.1017/S0033291704003356