Integrated Coping and Awareness Training
Condition: Schizophrenia
MeSH terms: Schizophrenia
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Integrated Coping and Awareness Therapy is a novel therapeutic intervention combining
      strategies to improve stress reactivity and increase meaningful coping, as well as a range of
      possible proximal (e.g. immune indices of stress reactivity, symptom severity) and distal
      measures (e.g. relapse, quality of life).
    

Detailed description: 
      Schizophrenia is one of the most devastating disorders that often results in a lack of
      functional recovery. Current treatments focused on remediating symptoms have shown only small
      successes in a return to functioning despite evidence of a dysregulated stress response.
      There is a fundamental gap in understanding the impact of allostatic overload in persons with
      schizophrenia that the investigators theorize is associated with deficits in functioning and
      with an increased vulnerability and relapse risk. The long-term goal is to test an
      intervention aimed at improving stress reactivity. The objective in this application is to
      develop and test the feasibility of a novel therapeutic intervention combining strategies to
      improve stress reactivity and increase meaningful coping. The central hypothesis is that an
      intervention that improves stress reactivity as measured proximally by endocrine, immune, and
      autonomic indices will result in improved adaptive capacity, better role functioning, reduced
      risk of relapse, and decreased likelihood of disability for people in the early stages of
      schizophrenia.

      The rationale for the proposed research is that stress reactivity may be a modifiable risk
      factor underlying functional deficits in schizophrenia. The intervention integrates two
      treatment approaches. The first is based on research showing that mindfulness meditation
      practice is associated with alterations in the neural processing of stressful events and
      targets adaptive responses to stress. The second focuses on providing a buffer against stress
      by using the self-generation of adaptive emotions with a positive psychology intervention,
      which is potentially associated with building protective social resources. These
      complimentary interventions provide a comprehensive synergistic approach for this population
      that could lead to more adaptive coping responses and create a buffer against stress.
    

Intervention name(s): I-CAT Therapy
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): I-CAT is a novel therapeutic intervention combining mindfulness and meditation strategies to improve stress reactivity and increase meaningful coping, as well as a range of possible proximal (e.g. autonomic, endocrine, immune indices of stress reactivity, symptom severity) and distal measures (function, relapse, quality of life). Participants meet weekly with a master's level clinician over the course of 20 weeks.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Schizophrenia; Treatment; Meditation; Mindfulness; Stress reactivity; First Episode Psychosis; Coping