Effect of computerized cognitive remediation therapy on mental time travel in patients with schizophrenia- a pilot randomized controlled trial

Junhua Cao; Cao Zhou

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1363290

Effect of computerized cognitive remediation therapy on mental time travel in patients with schizophrenia- a pilot randomized controlled trial

Front Psychiatry. 2024 May 2:15:1363290. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1363290. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Junhua Cao¹, Cao Zhou²

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, Henan, China.
² Department of Psychiatry, The Second People's Hospital of Guizhou, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the intervention effect of computerized cognitive remediation therapy (CCRT) on mental time travel (MTT) in patients with schizophrenia(SCZ).

Methods: From August 2020 to July 2021, 60 patients with SCZ were randomly allocated to either the study or the control group. The control group was treated with conventional drugs alone. The study group received CCRT and medical therapy for 40 minutes three times a week for 4 weeks. The participants underwent the MTT test before and after the training.

Results: A total of 28 patients in the study group and 26 patients in the control group were included in the analysis. Before training, there was no significant difference in the concretization ratio of recalling past and imagining future events between the study group and the control group (P > 0.05). After 4 weeks of training, the specific event ratio of the study group was higher than that of the control group (P < 0.01). In terms of the emotional titer of the events, the concreteness of the positive events in the study group was higher than that of the neutral events and negative events (P < 0.01). The concreteness of negative events was higher than that of neutral events (P < 0.01).

Conclusion: CCRT can improve the MTT ability of SCZ patients, which is manifested by an increase in the concretiveness of recalling past and imagining future events.

Keywords: computer cognitive remediation therapy; imagine the future; mental time travel; remember the past; schizophrenia.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Guiyang Science and Technology Plan Project (20192-12).