Social Cognition Training for People With a Psychotic Disorder: A Network Meta-Analysis
Schizophrenia Bulletin
Nijman, S. A., Veling, W., et al. (2020).
Schizophrenia Bulletin, 46(5), 1086-1103.
This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effects of social cognition training interventions on social cognition, social functioning, and psychiatric symptoms in individuals with a psychotic disorder.
GGZ Drenthe (The Netherlands)
From database inception to December 2018
Published, peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials
46 studies included in the systematic review; 36 studies included in the meta-analysis
Findings demonstrated the following:<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">When compared to treatment as usualy, targeted social cognition therapy (SCT) without cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) had a moderate effect on emotion perception (d= 0.68) and broad-based SCT without CRT had a small effect (d= 0.48).</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Positive effects for targeted SCT without CRT were additionally noted for social perception (d= 1.36), while no signfiicant effects were noted for theory of mind, attribution style, miscellaneous social cognition skills, social functioning, and psychiatric symptoms. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Positive effects for broad-based SCT without CRT were additionally noted for social perception (d= 1.35), theory of mind (d=0.42), and social functioning (d=0.82), while no significant effects were noted for attribution style, miscellaneous social cognition skill, and psychiatric symptoms. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Both targeted and broad-based SCT with CRT had large positive effects on social perception (d=1.38 and d=1.45 respectively), and broad-based SCT with CRT had a small positive effect on social functioning (d= 0.41). No other positive effects were noted for these treatments.</span></li>
</ul>
Overall, broad-based SCT without CRT demonstrated the most consistent improvements across outcomes. While improvements were maintained at follow-up, longer-term follow-up effects were smaller than post-treatment outcomes.
Group interventions performed significantly worse for emotion perception (b= -0.74), but demonstrated greater social functioning improvements (b= 0.53). Group versus individual formats had no other significant effect on outcomes. Total time of intervention was associated with larger effects for social cognition (b= 0.02), with no additional effect on outcomes noted.
