Role of Executive Function in Response to a Problem Solving Based Psychoeducational Intervention in Adolescents with Psychosis: The PIENSA Trial Revisited
by
Marta Rapado-Castro 1,2,*, Carmen Moreno 1, Ana Ruíz-Sancho 3,4, Francisco Camino 5, Celso Arango 1 and Maria Mayoral 1
Marta Rapado-Castro 1,2,*, Carmen Moreno 1, Ana Ruíz-Sancho 3,4, Francisco Camino 5, Celso Arango 1 and Maria Mayoral 1
1
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, IiSGM, CIBERSAM, 28009 Madrid, Spain
2
Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Victoria 3053, Australia
3
InterAcción—Psychotherapy, Groups and Personal Development Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre, 28009 Madrid, Spain
4
VocAcción—Group Processes and Institutional Consulting Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre, 28009 Madrid, Spain
5
Physiology Department, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Clin. Med. 2019, 8(12), 2108; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8122108
Received: 19 November 2019 / Revised: 25 November 2019 / Accepted: 26 November 2019 / Published: 2 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Cognitive Functioning in People with Schizophrenia)
An improvement in negative symptoms and a reduction in the number of visits to the emergency department have been reported in a problem solving based psychoeducational group intervention (PE) for adolescents with psychosis relative to a nonstructured group (NS). One of the factors that may play a role on the response to PE treatment is executive function (EF), a crucial cognitive domain for problem-solving performance. We aimed to examine the role of EF in response to PE treatment versus an NS group. We examined the associations between changes in cognition and in clinical/functional variables within each treatment group using Spearman-ranked and partial correlation analyses. A total of 22 individuals (mean age: 16.3) were randomized to PE (N = 10) and NS (N = 12). We found an association between improvements in EF performance and a reduction in positive symptoms (rs = –0.756, p = 0.030 for semantic fluency), reduction in negative symptoms (r = 0.758, p = 0.029 for semantic; rs = –0,733, p = 0.025 for verbal fluency), and reduction in the number of visits to the emergency department (r = –0,743, p = 0.035 for semantic fluency) in the PE group. No associations were found in the NS group. Our results suggest that EF may play a role in the specific improvements observed in the PE group. This may have implications in the development of new areas of clinical intervention focusing on the role of cognitive functioning in response to psychosocial treatments in psychosis.
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Keywords:
psychosis; adolescents; PIENSA program; executive function; psychoeducation; problem-solving; cognition
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Rapado-Castro, M.; Moreno, C.; Ruíz-Sancho, A.; Camino, F.; Arango, C.; Mayoral, M. Role of Executive Function in Response to a Problem Solving Based Psychoeducational Intervention in Adolescents with Psychosis: The PIENSA Trial Revisited. J. Clin. Med. 2019, 8, 2108.
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