Clinical trial NCT02337439: Perceptual Deficits in Schizophrenia
Official title: Cognitive Remediation for Perceptual Deficits in Schizophrenia
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Schizophrenia
Schizoaffective Disorder
Lead sponsor: VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Sponsor class: FED
Collaborators: name: Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
First posted: 2015-01-13
Enrollment: 60
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 60
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: In this study, participants with schizophrenia and schizoaffective are given computer exercises to complete. The goals of the study are to determine whether: 1) any of the computer exercises can improve information processing problems in schizophrenia, 2) improvements in information processing are related to other cognitive improvements, and 3) there are changes in brain activity associated with using the computer exercises.

The study will involve clinical interviews, cognitive tests, and frequent computerized cognitive training over the course of 2 months. Some participants will also have electroencephalography, a non-invasive test that measures brain activity, to determine whether there are changes in brain activity with the computer training.

Detailed description: Schizophrenia is a disabling neurodevelopmental illness, affecting nearly 1% of the population. The disability of schizophrenia is due in large part to the effects of the illness on cognitive faculties. Current medications for schizophrenia do not generally improve cognition, so a major contribution to disability remains undertreated. Computerized cognitive remediation programs, which produce activity-dependent recruitment of neural resources to specifically enhance under-functioning brain systems, have been effective at improving both cognition and community functioning in patients with schizophrenia, but the effects are still modest. Our preliminary work has suggested that our training is associated with improvements in visual memory, though visual memory has been a cognitive area more refractory to cognitive training.

In this study, participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder will be randomized to receive different computer exercises to help determine whether computer exercises can improve memory in schizophrenia, and whether the cognitive training is associated with changes in neural activity.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
* English speaking and reading

Exclusion Criteria:

* current substance abuse
* visual impairment
* neurological conditions
* current enrollment in another research study

Primary outcomes:
measure: Cognitive test performance
timeFrame: up to 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Psychiatric symptoms
timeFrame: up to 6 months
measure: Social Functioning
timeFrame: up to 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: New Haven
country: United States
facility: Yale University School of Medicine
state: Connecticut
Study officials:
References:
citation: Tandon R, Keshavan MS, Nasrallah HA. Schizophrenia, "just the facts" what we know in 2008. 2. Epidemiology and etiology. Schizophr Res. 2008 Jul;102(1-3):1-18. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2008.04.011. Epub 2008 Jun 2.
citation: Green MF. What are the functional consequences of neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia? Am J Psychiatry. 1996 Mar;153(3):321-30. doi: 10.1176/ajp.153.3.321.
citation: Carpenter WT, Buchanan RW. Lessons to take home from CATIE. Psychiatr Serv. 2008 May;59(5):523-5. doi: 10.1176/ps.2008.59.5.523.
citation: McGurk SR, Twamley EW, Sitzer DI, McHugo GJ, Mueser KT. A meta-analysis of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Dec;164(12):1791-802. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07060906.
citation: Wykes T, Huddy V, Cellard C, McGurk SR, Czobor P. A meta-analysis of cognitive remediation for schizophrenia: methodology and effect sizes. Am J Psychiatry. 2011 May;168(5):472-85. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10060855. Epub 2011 Mar 15.
citation: Surti TS, Wexler BE. A pilot and feasibility study of computer-based training for visual processing deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2012 Dec;142(1-3):248-9. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2012.09.013. Epub 2012 Oct 6. No abstract available.