title: Comprehensive family therapy: an effective approach for cognitive rehabilitation in schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Antipsychotic medication has limited abilities to improve the cognitive impairments that accompany schizophrenia. Adding psychosocial treatment may result in marked improvements in cognitive function, as compared to antipsychotic treatment alone. We hypothesized that a combination of individual and family interventions may be a useful cognitive rehabilitation paradigm for schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  An 18-month follow-up clinical trial of 256 stabilized patients with schizophrenia at six communities in Shanghai, People's Republic of China were randomly assigned to into either a comprehensive family therapy (CFT) group or a usual daily care (UDC) group. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were the primary outcome instruments for this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no significant difference between the CFT and UDC for all demographic characteristics at the baseline assessment. During the 18-month follow-up observation, changes in RBANS total score indicated that patients undergoing CFT showed greater improvement from baseline to the follow-up assessments in cognitive function than those in the UDC group (F=9.77, P=0.002). Post hoc analysis showed that the CFT group presented with significant differences in the RBANS total score, immediate memory, visuospatial skill, language, attention, and delayed memory sections compared with the UDC after 18 months of follow-up (all P<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that CFT can be easily adapted and may prove to be an effective approach for improving cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia. Our program provides a potential paradigm for cognitive rehabilitation for schizophrenia patients in the community.
authors.affiliation: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Weibo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yanfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Schizophrenia Program, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: cognitive function; comprehensive family therapy; schizophrenia