Efficacy of Social Cognition Training in Schizophrenia

September 15, 2025 updated by: VA Connecticut Healthcare System

The term social cognition refers to how social information is processed. Individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder have been shown to have significant deficits in social cognition. Moreover, it has been speculated that these deficits may in turn have a negative impact on their overall functioning. Behavioral interventions targeting social cognition are just beginning to emerge, and there is a need to evaluate their efficacy.

Objectives:

This is a small trial evaluating the efficacy of social cognition interaction training (SCIT) an experimental behavioral treatment for improving social cognition in schizophrenia.

Research Design and Methodology:

Approximately 48 participants with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders will be randomized into one of two conditions: 1) a 20 to 24 session manualized social cognition interaction training group (SCIT), or 2) wait-list control. Pre-and post-group therapy assessments of symptoms, social cognition, basic cognition, and community function will be conducted. Data obtained from this study will allow us to determine the efficacy of SCIT training in improving symptom, cognitive, and functional measures.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

51

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Connecticut
      • New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06510
        • Connecticut Mental Health Center
      • West Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06516
        • VA Connecticut Healthcare System

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
  • Age between 18 and 65
  • minimum of 30 days since discharge from last hospitalization
  • minimum of 30 days since last change in psychiatric medications
  • no housing changes in the past 30 days

Exclusion Criteria:

  • current diagnosis of alcohol or substance abuse/dependence
  • history of brain trauma or neurological disease
  • mental retardation or developmental disability
  • auditory or visual impairment that would interfere with study procedures

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1 Social Cognition Interaction Training
Will receive 20-26 sessions of a manualized group treatment called Social Cognition Interaction Training
Behavioral: Social Cognition Interaction Training
manualized group therapy
Other: 2 Wait List Control
Wait list control; 6 months of treatment as usual followed by Social Cognition Interaction Training group
Behavioral: WLC
wait-list control for 6 months, followed by the experimental group therapy

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Social Cognitive Measures
Time Frame: 6 months - baseline
change score for Facial Emotion Identification Task (FEIT), FEIT scores range from 0-19 with higher scores indicating better performance, higher change scores indicate greater improvement
6 months - baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Basic Cognitive Measures
Time Frame: 6 months - baseline
change score on Matrics Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) 6 domain composite average t-score, t-score mean = 50 and SD=10, higher change scores indicate greater improvement; please note outcome is not a t-score itself but a change in t-score
6 months - baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

VA Connecticut Healthcare System

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Joanna Fiszdon, Ph.D., VA Connecticut Heathcare System and Yale University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 21, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 21, 2007

First Posted (Estimated)

January 7, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

October 3, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 15, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • JMF0005
  • D4628W

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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