Effectiveness of Targeted Cognitive Training for Neurological Deficits in People With Schizophrenia
Condition: Schizophrenia
MeSH terms: Schizophrenia
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2

Summary: 
      This study will determine the effectiveness of reward-intensive, computer-based targeted
      cognitive training in improving neurocognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia.
    

Detailed description: 
      Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that causes severe disability. It is characterized
      by psychotic symptoms, including hallucinations and delusions. Neurocognitive deficits, such
      as impaired neurocognitive processing efficiency, also affect people with schizophrenia. This
      deficiency in the speed and accuracy with which the brain perceives and responds to targets
      causes scrambled messages to be transmitted in the brain, thereby affecting executive control
      and memory. Medications are available that effectively treat the psychotic symptoms. The
      neurocognitive deficits, however, do not subside with medication treatment, and are
      responsible for the failure to improve the e their psychosocial functioning of people with
      schizophrenia, even after their psychotic symptoms have gone into remission. The targeted
      cognitive training (TCT) exercises in this study are specifically designed to improve speed
      and accuracy in the perception of and response to verbal and visuo-spatial targets. This
      study will determine the effectiveness of reward-intensive, computer-based TCT in improving
      neurocognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia.

      Participants in this double-blind study will be paired according to IQ and baseline symptom
      severity. One member of each pair will be randomly assigned to training exercises that use
      TCT. The other will be assigned to a control intervention, which will involve commercially
      available computer games. All participants will complete exercises with their assigned
      intervention for 1 hour per day, 5 days per week, until 90 hours of training has been
      accumulated. Neuroimaging will be performed on a subgroup of participants to examine changes
      in brain activation patterns in response to the cognitive training. Upon study completion and
      at the 6-month follow up visit, participants will be assessed for improvement in the
      following areas: cognitive performance; symptom profile; quality of life; and social cue
      recognition.
    

Intervention name(s): Targeted cognitive training (TCT); Computer games
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): TCT includes cognitive remediation exercises that participants practice 1 hour per day, 5 days per week, for 20 weeks. TCT exercises are specifically designed to improve speed and accuracy in the perception of and response to verbal and visuo-spatial targets.; The control treatment involves commercially available computer games that participants practice 1 hour per day, 5 days per week, for 20 weeks.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Triple (Participant, Care Provider, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Schizoaffective Disorder; Cognitive Remediation; fMRI