Is game-based therapy effective for treating cognitive deficits in adults with schizophrenia? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial

Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are a major contributor to poor functional outcomes and everyday functioning, making them a promising therapeutic target. Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the use of digital interventions, such as game-based therapy, targeting various domains of cognition to treat mental disorders. Game-based digital interventions have been suggested to have therapeutic value in health care for people with schizophrenia. To support this idea, a novel, online training program (Komori Life) that targets cognitive deficits in schizophrenia was tested for feasibility of use and initial efficiency. Inpatients with schizophrenia were randomized to complete 20 sessions of either Komori Life (N = 40 completers) or treatment as usual (N = 40 completers). Cognitive and clinical assessments were performed at enrollment and after completion of the training intervention for all patients. In addition, 32 healthy volunteers were recruited as controls, and an eye-tracking paradigm was employed to assess attentional biases to emotional information before and after game intervention for all subjects. The results showed that there were no group differences in cognitive or clinical assessments at baseline between the two patient groups. After game training, there were still no group × time interactions on cognitive or clinical assessment scores. Regarding eye movement measurements, both patient groups showed increased attention to threatening stimuli compared to healthy controls in terms of attentional maintenance at baseline. After game training, the game training group revealed greater improvement in attentional bias towards threatening scenes (decreased percentage of total duration and percentage of total fixations towards threatening stimuli) relative to the treatment as usual group. Moreover, our results partially indicated that training effectiveness was associated with cognitive improvement and that heightened attentional maintenance to threats was associated with worse cognitive performance. This study provides initial evidence that a remote, online cognitive training program is feasible and effective in improving cognitive function in schizophrenia. This form of training may serve as a complementary therapy to existing psychiatric care. Clinical trial registration: the trial is registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn , identifier ChiCTR2100048403.