Investigaciones en rehabilitación cognitiva para pacientes con esquizofrenia (2004-2013): una revisión temática en beneficio de propuestas para etapas iniciales del trastorno / Research in cognitive rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia (2004-2013): A thematic review aimed at proposals for early stages of the disorder

ABSTRACT

A thematic review of research in cognitive reabilitation of patients with schizophrenia is presented with the purpose of systematizing a contribution to the generation of intervention proposals for early stages of the disorder. Sudies are reviewed between 2004-2013 based on the "PubMed.gov" and "Scielo.org" search engines. Forty-two papers were found and 19 were selected, applying as inclusion criteria research with control groups that show positive results in the rehabilitation of attention, memory, and executive function. Furthermore, the aim is to get to know the cognitive rehabilitation program on which that research is based in order to appreciate its approach and its emphases. The results show a corpus of interventions which, in spite of their diversity, have a significant impact on the patients' cognitive and psychosocial functioning. The main predictors of good results are low age, low degree of cognitive deterioration, and low use of antipsychotic medication at the time of intervention. Improvement of executive functioning appears to be the best predictor of the patients' functionality in everyday activities. An impact is also seen of cognitive improvement on relevant clinical indicators functioning in everyday activities, social adjustment, and clinical indices associated with a decrease of the observed symptoms. It is concluded that these results, together with research in which it is estimated that the alteration of the course of the schizophrenia requires early and multimodal work, imply the need to generate therapeutic proposals from the first episodes where the cognitive rehabilitation of the patient cannot be absent.