Adapted Cognitive/Affective Remediation for Cannabis Misuse in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe and chronic mental illness that places significant burden on the individuals who suffer from it, their families, and society. One of the most vexing problems in the treatment of schizophrenia is the high rate of substance use comorbidity. The majority of schizophrenia patients experience substantial cognitive and affective impairments. Consistent deficits have been observed in the broad domains of neurocognition(e.g., attention, memory, and problem-solving), social cognition (e.g., perspective-taking, foresight, social cue recognition), and affect regulation, which are major contributors to functional impairment in the disorder. These cognitive and affective deficits may be exacerbated among schizophrenia patients that misuse substances and because these deficits are untreated by current pharmacotherapeutic strategies many turn to cannabis and other drugs to cope. Cognitive Enhancement Therapy (CET) is a treatment that has proved effective in improving cognition in individuals with schizophrenia. Personal Therapy (PT) is a treatment designed to help individuals with the affective deficits that may lead to substance misuse for individuals with schizophrenia. This study will adapt and integrate CET and PT to test whether this intervention is better or more effective for treating substance misusing schizophrenia patients than the usual treatment received (Treatment as Usual or TAU). Participation in this study will last 18 months. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to receive either CET/PT or TAU. Participants that receive the CET/PT condition must be able to attend weekly treatment sessions in Pittsburgh, PA. All participants will complete cognitive, functional, and affective outcome measures at the beginning of the study, 6-months, 12-months, and at 18-months regardless of treatment assignment. Results from all outcome measures will be used to estimate the effectiveness of CET/PT for individuals that have schizophrenia and misuse substances.