Effect of Integrated Psychological Intervention on Negative Symptoms, Attention and Verbal Working Memory of Persons with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is one of the major mental illnesses which interfere with persons functioning in cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social domains of life. Among the symptoms of schizophrenia, negative symptoms and cognitive deficits respond poorly to pharmacological intervention. Hence this study was carried out to know the effect of 'integrated psychological intervention' developed for the purpose of this study, on negative symptoms, attention and verbal working memory of persons with schizophrenia. Study consisted of experimental group and treatment as usual (TAU) group consisting 30 patients each. They were assessed with digit vigilance test and verbal N back test from NIMHANS neuropsychological battery and PANSS before and after the intervention. Findings revealed that, at pretest phase, there was no significant difference between the group regarding study variables. Pre to post-test comparison of experimental group and TAU group revealed that there was significant difference between all the variables after the treatment. A comparison of experimental and control group in their post test revealed significant difference at p<0.05 level in verbal working memory 1back hits (t= 2.72) 1 back error, (t=2.47) and 2 back hits (t=3.01). The improvement in the mean score was higher in experimental group when compared to control group on all the study variables. Current study provides evidence for improvement of verbal working memory, and also suggests improvement in attention after integrated psychological intervention. However there was no significant improvement in negative symptoms.