Bengoetxea, E. 1 , Peña, J. 1 , García, A. . 1 & Ojeda, N. 1, 2
1 Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Deusto. Bilbao, Spain
2 CIBERSAM, Centro de Salud Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental. Spain.
Introduction: The efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation in patients with schizophrenia and first episode psychosis (FEP) has been widely recognized. Nevertheless, the pattern of cognitive improvement remains unclear. Our goal was to identify if sociodemographic, cognitive reserve or clinical variables predict the patients’ cognitive improvement. Method: 52 FEP and schizophrenia patients were recruited to attend REHACOP cognitive remediation program. All subjects underwent pre and post treatment clinical and neuropsychological assessments. Results: Regression analyses showed that the improvement in cognition after REHACOP is partially predicted by some baseline clinical characteristics. Depression had an influence on general cognition improvement, explaining the 26% of the variance (β=-0.45;p=0.049). Depression explained the 31% and 48% of the variance in verbal memory (β=-0.56;p=0.013) and verbal fluency (β=-0.49;p=0.013), respectively. Simultaneously, verbal fluency is influenced by mania (β=-0.45;p=0.021) basal ratings explaining 48% of the variance. On the other hand, positive clinical symptoms explained up to 32% of the variance both in processing speed (β=-0.57;p=0.009) and executive functioning (β=0.57;p=0.027) improvements. Conclusions: Results suggest that specific baseline clinical symptoms partially predict improvement obtained after cognitive remediation. According to these findings, we could partially predict the profile of patients that will benefit more from cognitive rehabilitation programs.