Browsing by Subject "neuropsykologinen kuntoutus"

Objectives: Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are serious mental illnesses characterized by positive, negative and disorganized symptoms. In addition to the aforementioned symptom types, psychotic disorders are associated with a wide array of cognitive deficits. Cognitive functioning has been found to deteriorate already during the prodromal phase preceding the onset of a psychotic disorder. In schizophrenia, the level of severity of cognitive deficits has been found to become settled fairly quickly after the onset of illness. During the last few decades, a form of neuropsychological rehabilitation called cognitive remediation therapy has been developed for the alleviation of cognitive deficits associated with psychotic disorders. The aim of this review is to examine whether cognitive remediation therapy is an effective form of rehabilitation for people at risk for psychosis, patients with first episode psychosis and patients in the early course of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. The effectiveness of cognitive remediation therapy is evaluated in terms of its capabilities to alleviate cognitive deficits and enhance functioning. Methods: The material for this review consists of research articles retrieved from Scopus. The article searches were conducted using various combinations of the following search terms: cognitive remediation, schizophrenia, psychosis, first episode, early course, high risk, prodrom* and premorbid. Two systematic reviews, one combined meta-analysis and systematic review and three original research reports were included in this review. Results: Cognitive remediation therapy has been shown to enhance the cognitive functioning of patients in the early course of psychotic disorders and patients with recent onset psychosis. Positive effects on patients’ functioning have also been found, and alleviation of other symptoms of psychotic disorders due to cognitive remediation therapy has been reported in some studies. Few studies have examined the effectiveness of cognitive remediation therapy for people at risk for psychosis, but current evidence tentatively suggests that this population could also benefit from the treatment. Future studies should investigate how different kinds of cognitive remediation therapy affect different aspects of cognition and functioning, what kinds of factors explain the effects of the treatment and how cognitive remediation therapy could be tailored to the needs of different groups and individuals.