title: Antipsychotic treatment beyond antipsychotics: metacognitive intervention for schizophrenia patients improves delusional symptoms.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although antipsychotic medication still represents the treatment of choice for schizophrenia, its objective impact on symptoms is only in the medium-effect size range and at least 50% of patients discontinue medication in the course of treatment. Hence, clinical researchers are intensively looking for complementary therapeutic options. Metacognitive training for schizophrenia patients (MCT) is a group intervention that seeks to sharpen the awareness of schizophrenia patients on cognitive biases (e.g. jumping to conclusions) that seem to underlie delusion formation and maintenance. The present trial combined group MCT with an individualized cognitive-behavioural therapy-oriented approach entitled individualized metacognitive therapy for psychosis (MCT+) and compared it against an active control.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 48 patients fulfilling criteria of schizophrenia were randomly allocated to either MCT+ or cognitive remediation (clinical trial NCT01029067). Blind to intervention, both groups were assessed at baseline and 4 weeks later. Psychopathology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS). Jumping to conclusions was measured using a variant of the beads task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PANSS delusion severity declined significantly in the combined MCT treatment compared with the control condition. PSYRATS delusion conviction as well as jumping to conclusions showed significantly greater improvement in the MCT group. In line with prior studies, treatment adherence and subjective efficacy was excellent for the MCT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that the combination of a cognition-oriented and a symptom-oriented approach ameliorate psychotic symptoms and cognitive biases and represents a promising complementary treatment for schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, Hamburg, Germany. moritz@uke.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moritz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Veckenstedt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Randjbar
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vitzthum
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Woodward
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D001364:Awareness; D003071:Cognition; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003702:Delusions / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents