Enhancing Cognitive Training Through Exercise After a First Schizophrenia Episode

The Cognitive Training and Exercise intervention involves 24 weeks of systematic computerized cognitive training, 4 hours per week, plus aerobic exercise, four 30 minute sessions per week. The first 12 weeks involves neurocognitive training, using auditory training exercises from Posit Science Brain HQ. The second 12 weeks involves social cognitive training, using the Posit Science SocialVille modules. Aerobic exercise occurs as two 30-minute sessions at the clinic and two at home weekly. Intensity of aerobic exercise is tailored to maintain an individualized target heart rate zone and is monitored by a heart rate recorder. A weekly one-hour Bridging Skills Group with other members of the treatment condition is designed to aid generalization of training to everyday life situations.

Inclusion criteria

• a first episode of a psychotic illness that began within the past two years;
• a diagnosis by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, mainly depressed type, or schizophreniform disorder;
• between 18 and 45 years of age;
• sufficient acculturation and fluency in the English language to avoid invalidating research measures of thought, language, and speech disorder or of verbal cognitive abilities; and
• residence within commuting distance of the Aftercare Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Exclusion criteria

• evidence of a known neurological disorder (e.g., epilepsy) or significant head injury;
• evidence of alcohol or substance use disorder within the six months prior to the first episode and evidence that substance abuse triggered the psychotic episode or makes the schizophrenia diagnosis ambiguous;
• mental retardation, i.e. premorbid intelligence quotient less than 70.