EPI-MINN: Targeting Cognition and Motivation

Psychosis Clinical Trial

Official title: EPI-MINN: Targeting Cognition and Motivation in Coordinated Specialty Care for Early Psychosis

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to perform a practice-based research project designed to assess whether cognition and motivated behavior in early psychosis can be addressed as key treatment goals within real-world settings by using a 12-week mobile intervention program. Participants who are enrolled in a chart review study of measurement-based care will be recruited to participate in this study. In the measurement-based care study, participants are enrolled in coordinated specialty care programs for early psychosis that provide comprehensive clinical services such as psychotherapy, medication management, psychoeducation, work or education support, and measurement-based care. Participants will complete a set of well-defined measures every 6 months that assess symptoms, functioning, cognition and motivation as standard of care. The current study will utilize the data acquired in the measurement-based care study.

The aim of this study is to investigate a well-defined 12-week mobile intervention program specifically designed to target cognitive functioning and motivated behavior for individuals with early psychosis. The investigators will test for differences in the clinical trajectories over 18 months in those who receive the intervention vs. those who do not.

This study will be conducted jointly with a sister protocol under a separate NCT listing. This iteration will be conducted locally within the EPI-MINN Network, while the other project will be conducted on a national scale.

Clinical Trial Description

Cognitive dysfunction is a core pathophysiological feature of psychosis and one of the strongest predictors of functional outcomes. Several studies indicate that current early intervention programs may not significantly alter long-term clinical outcome, suggesting that critical treatment target(s), beyond symptoms and functional status, are not being addressed. Evidence strongly indicates that, along with cognitive dysfunction, impaired motivation is also a critical target and unmet therapeutic need.

The application of effective treatment to improve cognition in early phases of psychosis has a very high likelihood of significantly improving long-term community functioning. The investigators have demonstrated both behavioral gains and improved neural system functioning after neuroscience-informed cognitive training in schizophrenia, in both chronic and early phases of the illness. In young recent-onset individuals (average age of 21 years), the investigators' multi-site double-blind randomized controlled trial showed that 40 hours/ 10 weeks of cognitive training delivered at home over a laptop resulted in significant gains in global cognition, verbal memory, and problem solving compared to a computer games control condition. Cognitive gains were significantly correlated with enhanced thalamic volume and thalamo-cortical connectivity, as well as increased white matter integrity. A meta-analysis of 11 RCTs in early schizophrenia has also indicated the benefit of cognitive remediation approaches.

Impaired motivation is also a core feature and very strong predictor of functional outcome in early stages of psychosis. Some studies have shown positive effects in improving motivation immediately after the intervention, but treatments that induce enduring improvements in motivated behavior are scarce. Disturbances in motivated behavior reflect a range of factors, including diminished anticipatory pleasure, difficulty learning from rewarding outcomes, reduction in effort expended to obtain rewarding outcomes, and impairment and disconnection between components of social motivation. This makes it difficult to determine optimal therapeutic approaches. However, some headway is starting to appear in the literature. For instance, social cognition impairments appear to play a specific contributing role to dysfunctions in motivated behavior, and are amenable to intervention. We have found that ratings of motivated behavior improve after social cognition training, and are significantly greater in subjects who performed cognitive training combined with social cognition training, than in those who completed only cognitive training. The investigators have also demonstrated a significant relationship between 6-month social functioning and training-induced improvements in the neural correlates of a self-other reality monitoring task. These data, along with the literature on reward anticipation and on social engagement in psychosis, led this group to work with young clients in a user-centered design process, to develop a mobile app called Personalized Real-time Intervention for Motivational Enhancement (PRIME). The app has been extremely well received by users and published behavioral findings are highly promising. Thus, the investigators will combine a focused course of cognitive plus social cognitive training (delivered remotely) with PRIME, to address the cognitive dysfunction and impaired motivation.

Functional recovery lags behind symptom recovery in early intervention programs, is sometimes difficult for individuals to attain, and is closely aligned with cognitive and motivational deficits. How could outcomes for individuals with early psychosis to improved? The results from the EPI-MINN: Measurement-Based Care study will provide data-driven knowledge on factors that contribute to 2-year treatment response trajectories in early psychosis. This knowledge will be combined with insights from the investigators' current study to deepen understanding of methods to optimize coordinated specialty care to improve clinical trajectories, using a well-defined scalable mobile program that addresses as-of-yet unmet therapeutic needs. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Mental Disorders
• Psychosis
• Psychotic Disorders

• NCT number: NCT05112432
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Minnesota
• Contact: Nate Olinger
• Phone: (612) 403-4587
• Email: epinetrct@umn.edu
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 12, 2021
• Completion date: July 31, 2025