Project Success: Effectiveness of Cognitive Enhancement Therapy versus Social Skills Training in Serious Mental Illness:
Site PI: Hannah Brown, MD
This study is being led by two principal investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: Matcheri Keshavan, MD and Dr. Russell Schutt, MD.
Psychosocial treatments are beneficial interventions for behavioral health patients that improve community and social functioning. This study (funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute) explores the effectiveness of two forms of psychosocial therapies for Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorder (SSD) patients: Cognitive Enhancement Therapy (CET), and Helping Ourselves Pursue and Experience Success (HOPES).
19 mental health service sites across New England administer either CET or HOPES and report the measurable functioning of their participants following 12 months of group and individual therapy interventions. Primary outcomes of these interventions are measured as community functioning, while secondary outcomes are measured as neuro-social cognitions.
This study aims to compare functional outcomes of patents between two methods of therapy. The goal is to resolve a clinician’s decisional dilemma between treatment plans for the best potential outcome of their patient. 6-8 participants will attend a weekly, in-person, social skills training class with two clinicians over the course of a year. Weekly modules will include communicating effectively, making most of leisure time, keeping relationships, healthy living, and many more skills.