A telemedicine platform to improve clinical parameters in paranoid schizophrenia patients: Results of a one-year randomized study
Objective The study objective was to test a smartphone-based MONEO platform designed to improve the clinical condition of paranoid schizophrenia patients. Telemedicine treatment is considered to be as effective as traditional treatment in outpatient clinics. Method A total of 290 patients with paranoid schizophrenia in the symptomatic remission state were recruited to this 12-month multicenter, open-label randomized trial. A study group (n = 191) received a smartphone with the MONEO platform installed. Patients conducted cognitive training twice a week. Patients' mental state was assessed every month via teleconference. A placebo group (n = 99) received a platform with functionality limited…
EPA-0552 – Social rehabilitation and employment of people with intellectual disabilities
Background Experience in the field of professional and social activation and employment of people with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities indicates the need to seek specific strategies for solving problems on the way into the labor market of people recruited from this social group. The analysis of the limitations and difficulties in recruiting these people, and based on samples taken before employing them on the open market, gave birth to the concept of developing an innovative system to support candidates for employment. Methods The development of the Project’Our work - preventing discrimination against disabled people in access to work, preceded by a very detailed analysis of t…
Treatment Compliance in the Long-Term Paranoid Schizophrenia Telemedicine Study
Schizophrenia is a chronic disease with a relatively high relapse rate. Different methods are introduced to improve compliance of the patients treated by psychiatrists; among them, a new and promising attitude is telepsychiatry. The 12-month clinical study of the compliance in paranoid schizophrenia was performed on the group of 199 patients. Every patient in the study was given a smartphone with the preinstalled original telemedicine platform (Telemedicine MoneoPlatform). The telemedicine system recorded every confirmation of the drug intake, and according to that, the compliance was counted as the percent of the doses of medication confirmed in relation to the planned ones. In the first m…
The use of the Free Recall Method in the Analysis of Verbal Memory Deficits in Dual Diagnosis Patients
In schizophrenia there are specific cognitive deficits including verbal memory deficits. The objective of this study was to examine short-term verbal memory differences between subjects with and without a dual diagnosis.A group of 80 patients with a diagnose of schizophrenia were examined. 40 of them never used illicit drugs, the other 40 also received a diagnose of addiction to psychoactive substances. The Free Recall Method was used to compare two examined groups. The results of addicted and not addicted schizophrenic patients were analyzed in all trials of the 5 stages of the examination with the use of Free Recall Method. Persons suffering from schizophrenia can usually repeat much fewe…
Impact of pharmacological and psychological treatment methods of depressive and anxiety disorders on cognitive functioning
Anxiety and depressive disorders are characterized by a number of clinical symptoms like decreased mood, apathy, anhedonia and anxiety. An important element of the clinical picture is also neurocognitive impairment. The most common treatment methods for depression and anxiety are pharmacology, psychotherapy or a combination of both methods. The data from literature show that those treatment methods lead to an improvement of clinical symptoms, but they exert a possible impact on cognitive functions. However the study results referring both to the role of pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy in this domain are still inconsistent. There is an increasing number of accessible data confirm…
The Effect of Smartphone-Based Cognitive Training on the Functional/Cognitive Markers of Schizophrenia: A One-Year Randomized Study
Background: Cognitive impairment is associated with long-term disability that results in the deterioration of both the social and professional status of individuals with schizophrenia. The impact of antipsychotic therapy on cognitive function is insufficient. Cognitive training is therefore proposed as a tool for cognitive rehabilitation in schizophrenia. In this study we investigated the effect of self-administered cognitive training using a smartphone-based application on the cognitive function of paranoid schizophrenia patients focusing on response time, correct answer rate, incorrect answer rate, and fatigability to check, if these functions can be functional markers of successful cogni…