A Study of the Effectiveness of Cognitive Adaptation Training in Early Intervention for Psychosis

A Study of the Effectiveness of Cognitive Adaptation Training in Early Intervention for Psychosis

The proposed study will involve a randomized trial of Cognitive Adaptation Training (CAT) for early intervention as compared against an active control in which Action Based Cognitive Remediation (ABCR) will be applied.

The proposed project will expand knowledge of the role of compensatory and restorative cognitive interventions for early intervention population individuals with schizophrenia. The investigators will conduct a two arm randomized trial comparing the impacts of CAT and Action Based Cognitive Remediation (ABCR) for individuals with schizophrenia who are under the age of 30. The model would mirror the investigators' preliminary work at CAMH (Kidd et al., 2014) in which there will be 4 months of specialist-delivered treatment followed by 5 months of maintenance by case managers with pre, 4 month, and 9 month evaluations conducted. This study will be among the most rigorous examinations of such interventions to date, would be among the first to examine integrative approaches, and would make a substantial contribution to the early intervention literature.

The questions for the purposes of this project are:

1. Is CAT effective among individuals with schizophrenia under the age of 30?

   and

2. Does integrating cognitive remediation with CAT enhance outcomes as compared with CAT alone?

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants must be CAMH clients, have an assigned caseworker, be between the ages of 16-34 and have a psychosis such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Exclusion Criteria:

• not currently experiencing high level of paranoia.