Social Cognition in Youth Who Have a First Degree Relative With Schizophrenia

The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre

Status

Completed

Conditions

Schizophrenia

Treatments

Behavioral: Control Training

Behavioral: Emotion Recognition Training

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT04681807

2019033

Details and patient eligibility

About

Social cognition is an individual's ability to perceive, process, understand, and react to other individuals in a social situation. Social cognition is impaired in individuals with schizophrenia, including difficulty recognizing others' emotions. A promising treatment avenue for emotion recognition problems in individuals with schizophrenia is continued practice with various facial expression recognition training programs. First degree relatives of someone with schizophrenia are considered at familial high risk (FHR) for the illness, because of its high level of heritability. It is therefore critical to explore if these emotion recognition training programs could also benefit people at FHR. In this current study, the investigators aim to explore the social-cognitive profiles and their neural correlates in FHR individuals. The investigators also aim to explore the potential efficacy of an emotion recognition intervention to improve this ability in FHR individuals.

Full description

All participants will complete a battery of social cognitive tests as well as an fMRI scan to explore the neuronal correlates underlying lower social cognitive functioning observed in FHR individuals. FHR youth will be randomized into either a 4-session emotion recognition training exercise program on iPad or a control training program on iPad that includes commercial games and control emotional attention bias training.

Enrollment

82 patients

Sex

All

Ages

15 to 35 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Between (or equal to) 15-35 years of age
Ability to read/speak fluent English
Diagnosis of SZ, schizoaffective disorder or schizophreniform confirmed for 1st degree relative by referring psychiatrist or two reliable informants (using the adapted FIGS questionnaire).

Exclusion criteria

No diagnosis of psychosis related disorder
Significant neurological or medical disorders that may produce cognitive impairment
Current epilepsy or previous history of seizures
Previous head injury with current continuing symptoms (i.e., cognitive ability, dizziness, etc.)
Recent history of substance abuse or dependence (within past 3 months)
MRI contraindication (e.g. metallic head implant, history of seizure, pacemaker, pregnancy, etc.)
Current IQ < 70 as measured by the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence Scale (WASI)