Clinical trial NCT02399020: Social Cognition and Interaction Training for Adults With Psychotic Disorders: An Open Pilot Study in Finland
Official title: Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) for Adults With Psychotic Disorder: An Open Pilot Study in Finland
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Psychotic Disorder
Cognitive Function 1, Social
Lead sponsor: Helsinki University Central Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
name: City of Helsinki
First posted: 2015-03-26
Enrollment: 33
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: 33 individuals with a psychotic disorder were given 22-24 sessions weekly or twice weekly of Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) and evaluated at the baseline and after the intervention. Main outcome was improvement in social cognition according to specific measures of facial emotion identification, Theory of Mind, attributional bias, social cognitive accuracy and metacognitive overconfidence.

Detailed description: 33 clinically stable in- and outpatients with chart diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or unspecified nonorganic psychosis, aged 18-56 years, were given 22-24 weekly or twice weekly sessions of a manualized group treatment for improvement of social cognition, Social Cognition and Interaction Training (1,2). Main outcome was defined as improvement in social cognition according to specific measures of facial emotion identification, Theory of Mind, attributional bias, social cognitive accuracy and metacognitive overconfidence.Emotion perception was measured with the Facial Emotion Identification Task (FEIT) (3); Theory of Mind was measured with the Hinting Task (4) and attributional bias with the Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire-Ambiguous Items (AIHQ-A) (5). In addition, broad-based social cognitive accuracy, attributional bias and metacognitive overconfidence was measured with the Social Cognition Screening Questionnaire. All the measures were evaluated at the baseline and immediately after the intervention. Changes in total scores for the FEIT and Hinting Task, and the three subscales of AIHQ-A and SCSQ were analysed separately using paired samples t-test in IBM SPSS Statistics version 21.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or psychosis NOS
* inpatients in longer-stay rehabilitation wards or outpatients in supported housing
* stable clinical condition
* written informed consent
* problems in social relationships according to the clinical staff
* standard medical treatment provided by the care facilities

Exclusion Criteria:

* inadequate command of Finnish language
* unstable clinical condition

Primary outcomes:
measure: improvement in social cognitive ability
timeFrame: 11-24 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Helsinki
country: Finland
facility: Aurora Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: City of Helsinki Department of Social Services and Health Care
name: Leena Turpeinen, MD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References:
citation: Roberts DL, Penn DL. Social cognition and interaction training (SCIT) for outpatients with schizophrenia: a preliminary study. Psychiatry Res. 2009 Apr 30;166(2-3):141-7. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2008.02.007. Epub 2009 Mar 9.
citation: Penn DL, Roberts DL, Combs D, Sterne A. Best practices: The development of the Social Cognition and Interaction Training program for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Psychiatr Serv. 2007 Apr;58(4):449-51. doi: 10.1176/ps.2007.58.4.449.
citation: Kerr SL, Neale JM. Emotion perception in schizophrenia: specific deficit or further evidence of generalized poor performance? J Abnorm Psychol. 1993 May;102(2):312-8. doi: 10.1037//0021-843x.102.2.312.
citation: Corcoran R, Mercer G, Frith CD. Schizophrenia, symptomatology and social inference: investigating "theory of mind" in people with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 1995 Sep;17(1):5-13. doi: 10.1016/0920-9964(95)00024-g.
citation: Combs DR, Penn DL, Wicher M, Waldheter E. The Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ): a new measure for evaluating hostile social-cognitive biases in paranoia. Cogn Neuropsychiatry. 2007 Mar;12(2):128-43. doi: 10.1080/13546800600787854.