Clinical trial NCT04681807: Social Cognition in Youth Who Have a First Degree Relative With Schizophrenia
Official title: Social Cognition in Youth Who Have a First Degree Relative With Schizophrenia
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Schizophrenia
Lead sponsor: The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-12-23
Enrollment: 36
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 15
Maximum age (years): 25
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Patients will be randomized to either 7 visits over a period of 1 month of an emotion recognition training condition or 7 visits over a period of one month of active control training condition.
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Social cognition is an individual's ability to perceive, process, understand, and react to other individuals in a social situation. Social cognition is impaired in individuals with schizophrenia, including difficulty recognizing others' emotions. A promising treatment avenue for emotion recognition problems in individuals with schizophrenia is continued practice with various facial expression recognition training programs. First degree relatives of someone with schizophrenia are considered at familial high risk (FHR) for the illness, because of its high level of heritability. It is therefore critical to explore if these emotion recognition training programs could also benefit people at FHR. In this current study, the investigators aim to explore the social-cognitive profiles and their neural correlates in FHR individuals. The investigators also aim to explore the potential efficacy of an emotion recognition intervention to improve this ability in FHR individuals.

Detailed description: All participants will complete a battery of social cognitive tests as well as an fMRI scan to explore the neuronal correlates underlying lower social cognitive functioning observed in FHR individuals. FHR youth will be randomized into either a 4-session emotion recognition training exercise program on iPad or an active control training program on iPad that includes commercial games and control emotional attention bias training.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Between (or equal to) 15-25 years of age
* Ability to read/speak fluent English
* Diagnosis of SZ, schizoaffective disorder or schizophreniform confirmed for 1st degree relative by referring psychiatrist or two reliable informants (using the adapted FIGS questionnaire).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Diagnosis of mental health disorder
* Significant neurological or medical disorders that may produce cognitive impairment
* Current epilepsy or previous history of seizures
* Previous head injury with current continuing symptoms (i.e., cognitive ability, dizziness, etc.)
* Recent history of substance abuse or dependence (within past 3 months)
* MRI contraindication (e.g. metallic head implant, history of seizure, pacemaker, pregnancy, etc.)
* Current IQ \< 70 as measured by the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence Scale (WASI)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in emotion recognition performance from baseline - PENN Emotion Recognition Test
timeFrame: baseline and post treatment (1 month)
measure: Change in brain activity during emotion recognition tasks from baseline
timeFrame: baseline and post treatment (1 month)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Ottawa
country: Canada
facility: The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
state: Ontario
Study officials:
References: