Improving Accessibility and Personalization of CR for Schizophrenia

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

Cognitive remediation (CR) is an evidence-based practice to treat the pervasive and significant cognitive deficits that contribute to functional decline in schizophrenia. The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) has teamed with the Principal Investigator to be the first, and largest state sy...

Cognitive remediation (CR) is an evidence-based practice to treat the pervasive and significant cognitive deficits that contribute to functional decline in schizophrenia. The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) has teamed with the Principal Investigator to be the first, and largest state system of care to implement a statewide program of CR tied to recovery programming. Through Cognitive Remediation to Promote Recovery (CR2PR), CR is now offered in outpatient programs throughout the state, with plans to expand to more services and further adapt implementation to improve treatment outcomes. To proceed systematically, this project will work directly with CR2PR programs, guided by practice-based evidence gathered during CR2PR to build upon and improve current CR delivery methods in two ways. Ongoing program evaluation indicates that the burden of attending clinic twice per week for CR limits the number of people who enroll. This project will test the feasibility and collect preliminary data on the effectiveness of personalized CR delivery that involves one clinic visit and one remote session per week. Demonstrating the effectiveness of incorporating remotely delivered CR would double the number of patients who could access the OMH CR program and reduce treatment costs. Current effect sizes for cognition and functional outcomes may remain limited if personalization, mechanisms of action, and relevant targets are not better addressed. Given evidence that early auditory information processing ability (EAP) works as a neurobehavioral marker of need for sensory processing training, this study will test the potential to use baseline EAP assessment to tailor CR, incorporating EAP with other cognitive skills training as clinically indicated. The ultimate goal of integrating scalable assessment practices to personalize CR is to improve recovery outcomes. The study will use a repeated measures, randomized design. Eligible participants who are referred to CR2PR will complete a routine baseline neurocognitive assessment with the addition of a EAP measure, and will then be randomized to either all-clinic CR (Clinic) or clinic+remote (Hybrid) CR. The Clinic research arm consists of 30 sessions delivered twice weekly in a group format of up to 8 participants with rolling admission. The Hybrid condition consists of 15 clinic sessions in the above format, and independent homework on cognitive exercises for 60 minutes per week for 15 weeks using a laptop, PC or tablet available to them. All clinic sessions consist of 45 minutes of working on 3-4 computerized exercises selected by a clinician from a menu of web-based programs to improve the cognitive functions identified as impaired on the assessment. Computer exercises are followed by 15 minute manualized discussion groups based on the concept of "Bridging". All participants will complete a treatment satisfaction survey and will be re-tested on outcome measures approximately 1 week following end of treatment. Additional data on the feasibility and acceptability of the Hybrid approach will be gathered through a qualitative interview with participants at treatment endpoint.

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