Predictors of performance improvements within a cognitive remediation program for schizophrenia

TY - JOUR

T1 - Predictors of performance improvements within a cognitive remediation program for schizophrenia

AU - Scheu, Florian

AU - Aghotor, Julia

AU - Pfueller, Ute

AU - Moritz, Steffen

AU - Bohn, Francesca

AU - Weisbrod, Matthias

AU - Roesch-Ely, Daniela

N1 - © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2013/10/30

Y1 - 2013/10/30

N2 - Cognitive impairment is regarded a core feature of schizophrenia and is associated with low psychosocial functioning. There is rich evidence that cognitive remediation can improve cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about what predicts individual remediation success. Some studies suggest that baseline cognitive impairment might be a limiting factor for training response. Aim of the current study was to further examine the role of cognitive and symptom variables as predictors of remediation success. We studied a total sample of 32 patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder who were engaged in a computer-based cognitive training program (CogPack). A pre-training test battery provided cognitive measures of selective attention, executive functioning, processing speed, verbal memory, and verbal intelligence along with measures for positive and negative symptoms. Training response was defined as improvement on training tasks. Correlation analyses revealed no significant relationship between any of the baseline cognitive or symptom measures and improvement rates. However, better baseline cognition was associated with a higher percentage of tasks with initial ceiling effects. We conclude that not carefully tailoring task difficulty to patients' cognitive abilities constitutes a much more severe threat to cognitive remediation success than cognitive impairment itself.

AB - Cognitive impairment is regarded a core feature of schizophrenia and is associated with low psychosocial functioning. There is rich evidence that cognitive remediation can improve cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about what predicts individual remediation success. Some studies suggest that baseline cognitive impairment might be a limiting factor for training response. Aim of the current study was to further examine the role of cognitive and symptom variables as predictors of remediation success. We studied a total sample of 32 patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder who were engaged in a computer-based cognitive training program (CogPack). A pre-training test battery provided cognitive measures of selective attention, executive functioning, processing speed, verbal memory, and verbal intelligence along with measures for positive and negative symptoms. Training response was defined as improvement on training tasks. Correlation analyses revealed no significant relationship between any of the baseline cognitive or symptom measures and improvement rates. However, better baseline cognition was associated with a higher percentage of tasks with initial ceiling effects. We conclude that not carefully tailoring task difficulty to patients' cognitive abilities constitutes a much more severe threat to cognitive remediation success than cognitive impairment itself.

KW - Adult

KW - Cognition Disorders

KW - Cognitive Therapy

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Neuropsychological Tests

KW - Psychiatric Status Rating Scales

KW - Schizophrenia

KW - Statistics as Topic

KW - Treatment Outcome

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.04.015

DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.04.015

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 23816518

VL - 209

SP - 375

EP - 380

JO - PSYCHIAT RES

JF - PSYCHIAT RES

SN - 0165-1781

IS - 3

ER -