EPA-1386 – Cognitive-behavioral Social Skills Training for Outpatients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

A novel brief cognitive-behavioural SST addressing seven target behaviours proposed by Kopelowicz, Zarate, and Liberman (2006) was designed and tested in a sample of outpatients suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (Rus-Calafell et al., 2013). The proposed training was focused on the seven target behaviours: social perception, social information processing, responding and sending skills, affiliative skills, instrumental role skills, interactional skills, and behaviours governed by social norms. Furthermore, it was applied in a group format to provide the patients with opportunities to practice the newly learned skills with other subjects. Results at posttreatment showed an improvement in the self-statements during social interactions, negative symptomatology and psychopathology, and quality of life regarding mental health. Informants (most of them family) also reported a perceived positive change, in terms of social withdrawal and communication, for those patients who benefitted from SST. There was also a very positive effect of the treatment on the SST group regarding subjects’ emotional and social cognition. The authors assume that the treatment's content focused on social perception and social attribution resulted in a significant impact on these outcome measures, specifically in the emotional self-regulation statements during social interactions. In terms of subjective evaluation of the treatment, the qualitative assessment revealed a high treatment's acceptance and perceived benefit to subjects. Main application issues as well as clinical case examples will be discussed in the workshop.