USS Training to Improve Social Function in People With Psychosis

Not Applicable

Active, not recruiting

Brief Summary: Psychotic spectrum disorders (PSD) are associated with poor social function. By doing this study, the investigators hope to learn which of two different types of 2-month long training courses is more effective in improving day-to-day interactions and quality of life.

Detailed Description: Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two training courses. All participants will be asked to fill out questionnaires, engage in interviews, and complete paper and pencil tasks at the beginning of the study, at the halfway point of the training course (1 month), and end of the training course (2 months), and another 2 months later. One training focuses on how to make good judgments about what other people may be thinking or feeling in social situations, and why people might act in certain ways in different situations. The other training focuses on different strategies for handling everyday problems and stressors. Both trainings are done in one-on-one sessions with a research staff member. There will be 16-20 training sessions, each about 45-60 minutes long. The investigators will ask participants to attend 2 training sessions per week, so the total training time should be about 2 months.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Veteran with diagnosis of psychotic disorder (e.g. schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, psychosis NOS, etc);
psychiatrically stable (30 or more days since last hospitalization/change in psychiatric medication)
fluent in English
able to provide legal written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

current substance use disorder
developmental disability
severe, uncorrected auditory/visual impairment
diagnosis of medical or neurological illness known to impair brain function including dementia, presence of seizures, history of head trauma with loss of consciousness > 1hr, or clear cognitive sequelae from other illness or injury
currently enrolled in another treatment study targeting, or expected to impact, functioning.

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
USS	USS	social cognitive training
MovingForward	MovingForward	problem solving training

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Social Functioning Scale (SFS) Change	Post-testing (2 months) and follow-up (4 months)	The SFS is one of the best known measures of social functioning in schizophrenia, and was one of two social function measures nominated by experts and selected by a RAND panel for a large-scale investigation of measures to assess real-world outcomes based on its psychometric properties, sensitivity to change, relationship to symptoms, and comprehensiveness. The total score ranges from 55 to 135, with a higher score indicates better social functioning. Score change at post-testing (2 months) and follow-up (4 months) was calculated by subtracting the baseline score, with negative values indicating worse and positive values indicating better social functioning compared to baseline. Mid-testing (1 month) score change was included in the mixed-effects model, but its least square mean was not calculated as it was not a time point of interest.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Social Skills Performance Assessment (SSPA) Change	Post-training (2 months) and follow-up (4 months).	SSPA is a role-play measure of social skill ability. It consists of two, 3-minute, structured role plays (tenant meeting a new neighbor; tenant calling landlord to request repair). Each role play is rated between 1 and 5. The total score is calculated by summing up the ratings, and ranges from 2 to 10. A higher score indicates better social skill performance. Score change at post-testing (2 months) and follow-up (4 months) was calculated by subtracting the baseline score, with negative values indicating worse and positive values indicating better social skill performance compared to baseline.