Current Status of Cognitive Remediation for Psychiatric Disorders: A Review

Summary & key facts

This paper is a review of 'cognitive remediation' (training that tries to improve thinking skills) for people with mental health problems. The authors looked at studies from the past 50 years. They say there is good evidence that these training programs help people with schizophrenia, and that similar programs have more recently been tried with depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and anorexia. The review describes common programs, what the research shows so far, and what researchers think should happen next.

Key facts:

• Thinking skills are important for everyday life and for doing things like work. Problems with thinking are common in many mental health conditions and make daily life harder.
• Cognitive remediation is a set of training programs designed to improve thinking skills such as memory, attention, and planning.
• Over the past 50 years researchers have tested many cognitive remediation approaches and collected evidence about how well they work.
• The review finds the strongest evidence for cognitive remediation helping people with schizophrenia.
• Researchers report that cognitive remediation has also been successfully used more recently in people with depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anorexia nervosa.
• The authors describe widely used cognitive remediation programs from around the world and compare the existing evidence for them.
• The paper does not claim cognitive remediation is a cure. Instead, the authors say improving thinking skills could lead to better quality of life and better ability to work, but more research and clearer standards are still needed.
• The review ends by suggesting directions for future research to improve and test these programs in different disorders and settings.

Abstract

Cognition is an important factor that affects daily functioning and quality of life. Impairment in cognitive function is a common symptom present in various psychological disorders, which hinders patients from functioning normally. Given that cognitive impairment has devastating effects, enhancing this in patients should lead to improvements in compromised quality of life and functioning, including vocational functioning. Over the past 50 years, several attempts have been made to improve impaired cognition, and empirical evidence for cognitive remediation (CR) has accumulated that supports its efficacy for treating schizophrenia. More recently, CR has been successfully applied in the treatment of depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and anorexia nervosa. This study critically reviews recent CR studies and suggests their future direction. This study aimed to provide a modern definition of CR, and examine the current status of empirical evidence and representative CR programs that are widely used around the world.

Topics

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Mental Health Research Topics Schizophrenia research and treatment

Categories

Health Sciences Medicine Psychiatry and Mental health

Tags

Anorexia nervosa Bipolar disorder Clinical psychology Cognition Cognitive remediation therapy Cognitive skill Eating disorders Medicine Psychiatry Psychology Psychotherapist Quality of life (healthcare) Schizophrenia (object-oriented programming)

Conditions & symptoms

ADHD Depression Eating Disorder Difficulty focusing Lack of energy or motivation