A Group Intervention for Motivational Deficits: Preliminary Investigation of a Blended Care Approach Using Ambulatory Assessment.

Motivational deficits are an important predictor of functional outcomes in individuals with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and mood spectrum disorders. The aim of the present study was to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a group version of "Switch," an intervention that targets motivational deficits, enriched with an ecological momentary intervention (EMI) approach (i.e.

Switch, a new intervention that targets motivational negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia: An uncontrolled pilot study.

Objective: People diagnosed with schizophrenia experience difficulties in their daily life, which is best explained by motivational negative symptoms. This study explores the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of Switch, a new multifactorial intervention that targets motivational deficits.

Method: Eight participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder followed around 30 individual sessions of Switch over 12 months.

Multitasking capacities in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia: a preliminary examination of their neurocognitive underpinnings and ability to predict real world functioning.

Difficulties in everyday life activities are core features of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia and in particular during multitasking activities. However, at present, patients׳ multitasking capacities have not been adequately examined in the literature due to the absence of suitable assessment strategies. We thus recently developed a computerized real-life activity task designed to take into account the complex and multitasking nature of certain everyday life activities where participants are required to prepare a room for a meeting.

Computerized assessment of cognition in schizophrenia: promises and pitfalls of CANTAB.

Objective: Over the last decade, the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), which comprises visuo-spatial tasks, has been utilized in cognitive studies of schizophrenia. A clear approach concerning the usage of CANTAB for the appraisal of neurocognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia is currently lacking.

Method: In this paper, we have first reviewed the overall applications of CANTAB and then evaluated methodological strengths and weaknesses of CANTAB as a neurocognitive battery for schizophrenia.