A Controlled Trial of Cognitive Remediation in Schizophrenia

• Published in: Schizophrenia bulletin Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 167 - 176
• Main Authors: van der Gaag, Mark, Kern, Robert S., van den Bosch, Robert J., Liberman, Robert P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford National Institute of Mental Health 2002; Oxford University Press; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Adult; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Cognition Disorders - rehabilitation; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Rehabilitation; Cognitive Remediation; Emotions; Female; Generalization (Psychology); Human; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Memory; Mental Recall; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reeducation. Readaptation. Sociotherapy; Remedial Teaching; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenia - rehabilitation; Schizophrenic Psychology; Social Perception; Treatments; emotion perception; psychiatric rehabilitation; memory; cognitive remediation; Schizophrenia; attention; executive functioning; Human; Executive function; Cognitive therapy; Social perception; Treatment efficiency; Memory; Attention; Controlled therapeutic trial; Cognition; Emotion emotionality; Psychosis; Social rehabilitation; Treatment; Follow up study; Therapeutic schedule; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0586-7614; 1745-1701
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a006919

A randomized, controlled trial of a 3-month cognitive remediation program was examined for its efficacy at ameliorating deficits in social and emotion perception in 42 hospitalized patients with schizophrenia. Generalization of training effects to attention, memory, and executive functioning was also examined. The program included an eclectic mix of self-instruction, memory enhancement, inductive reasoning, and compensatory training procedures, while the control condition included participation in a leisure group that was matched to the experimental group for staff involvement time. Patient care management, including type and dose of antipsychotic medication, remained constant throughout the study period. The results indicated that the cognitive training program improved emotion perception, with some evidence of generalization to measures of executive functioning; other areas of neurocognitive functioning were largely unaffected. While cognitive training programs may improve targeted areas of neurocognitive processing, broad generalization effects to domains outside those targeted for intervention are not likely concomitants.