A review of the Chinese literature on cognitive remediation in psychosis

Abstract

Accumulating data have shown that cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) has moderate to strong effects on improving cognitive function in patients with psychosis, especially in schizophrenia. In recent years, a number of studies about CRT or computerized CRT (CCRT) have been published; unfortunately, since most of them are written in Chinese, they are not accessible to non-Chinese readers. This review aims to introduce and discuss the research and clinical practice of CRT and CCRT in China. The present review includes eight original papers, six published in Chinese journals and two in English journals. Six papers investigated the clinical effect of CRT or CCRT utilizing a randomized controlled study design. The other two papers explored brain function or structural change after CRT or CCRT treatment. All eight papers reported some beneficial effects of CRT and CCRT on cognitive functions, with three of them showing benefits on social functions. One functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study showed some change of neural activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after CRT therapy. In addition to reviewing the published literature, we also discuss the current state of clinical practice of CRT and CCRT in China.

Keywords: Cognitive remediation therapy; Mental health; Psychosis; Schizophrenia.