Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6826850 | Schizophrenia Research | 2012 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
A recent single-site study (Fisher et al., 2009. Am J Psychiatry. 166 (7) 805-11) showed that repeated training with the Brain Fitness Program (BFP) improved performance on a battery of neuropsychological tasks. If replicated these data suggest an important non-pharmacological method for ameliorating cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Our study evaluated the BFP training effects in an open-label, multi-site, multinational clinical trial. Fifty-five stable adult patients with schizophrenia on regular antipsychotic medication completed â¥Â 32 BFP training sessions over 8-10 weeks. Training effects on cognitive performance and functional capacity outcome measures were measured using CogState® schizophrenia battery, UCSD Performance based Skills Assessment (UPSA-2) and Cognitive Assessment Interview (CAI). BFP training showed a large and significant treatment effect on a training exercise task (auditory processing speed), however this effect did not generalize to improved performance on independent CogState® assessment. There were no significant effects on UPSA-2 or CAI scores. Our study demonstrated the feasibility of implementing BFP training in a multi-site study. However, BFP training did not show significant treatment effects on cognitive performance or functional capacity outcome measures despite showing large and significant effects on a training exercise.
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Behavioral Neuroscience
Authors
N.V. Murthy, H. Mahncke, B.E. Wexler, P. Maruff, A. Inamdar, M. Zucchetto, J. Lund, S. Shabbir, S. Shergill, M. Keshavan, S. Kapur, M. Laruelle, R. Alexander,