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A meta-analysis of cognitive interventions for patients with recent onset psychosis: are they effective for improving functioning?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2023

Eleni Petkari Open the ORCID record for Eleni Petkari [Opens in a new window] ,
Natalia Martín-María Open the ORCID record for Natalia Martín-María [Opens in a new window] ,
Teresa Sánchez-Gutiérrez ,
Belén Fernández-Castilla Open the ORCID record for Belén Fernández-Castilla [Opens in a new window]  and
Ana Calvo
Eleni Petkari*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño, Spain
Natalia Martín-María
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Health Psychology, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, Madrid, Spain
Teresa Sánchez-Gutiérrez
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño, Spain
Belén Fernández-Castilla
Affiliation:
Department of Methodology of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
Ana Calvo
Affiliation:
Department of Personality, Assessment and Clinical Psychology. School of Psychology. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
*
Corresponding author: Eleni Petkari; Email: eleni.petkari@unir.net
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Abstract

The increasing popularity of cognitive interventions for patients with psychosis calls for further exploration on how these interventions may benefit functional outcomes. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to examine the effectiveness of cognitive interventions (i.e. Cognitive Remediation, Cognitive Training, Social Cognition, and their combination) on functioning of patients with recent onset psychosis, established as the period within the first five years from the first episode. The following databases were searched: Proquest, PUBMED/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, WOS, Scopus for research published until January 2022. In total, 12 studies were eligible. The total number of participants was 759, of which 32.2% in the intervention and 30.8% in the control group were female. We extracted data to calculate the standardized mean change from pre-test to post-test comparing the intervention with the control conditions. Overall, there was no effect of any of the cognitive intervention types on functioning. None of the examined factors (intervention type, length, and modality; control condition, follow-up time; cognitive functions; medication; symptoms) seemed to moderate these findings. Our results indicate that cognitive interventions as standalone interventions do not appear to improve functioning in patients with recent onset psychosis. Given the small number of eligible studies, further RCTs with larger and more refined samples are needed to test whether these interventions should be applied as single interventions with these patients.

Keywords

Cognitive remediationcognitive trainingfunctioningmeta-analysisrecent onset psychosissocial cognition
Type
Review Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 53 , Issue 8 , June 2023 , pp. 3306 - 3321
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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