Efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation of attention, executive functions, and working memory in psychotic disorders: A systematic review

Abstract

Cognitive impairment is a core aspect of schizophrenia. Studies have postulated that it is the basis of the disease as evidenced by its independent and persistent quality and its relation to prognosis. Research on cognitive deficits in psychotic disorders has led to the development of intervention strategies for the cognitive rehabilitation of these patients. Attention, working memory, and executive functions are among the most widely affected functions and are closely related to the functionality of these patients. This work aims to study the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation targeting attention, executive functions, and working memory in people diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (mostly schizophrenia).

An exhaustive search in PubMed and PsycINFO was conducted up to January 2016. All research papers that were included studied a therapeutic technique to improve one or more of the aforementioned functions in patients over age 16 years diagnosed with psychotic disorder. Studies with methodological diversity were included, which were afterwards organized by levels of evidence. Thirty-four papers were studied, from which we can conclude that cognitive rehabilitation of the aforementioned cognitive functions brings about improvements in cognition. As a result of the influence of cognitive rehabilitation on other variables such as social functioning and symptoms of the disease, the results are promising.