NCT04251195

Verbal Memory Training Using Virtual Reality in Schizophrenia

Completed NA Last updated 14 April 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Cognitive Intervention in Schizophrenia in 30 participants. Completed in 17 February 2023.

Timeline

12 February 2019

Primary endpoint
17 February 2023

17 February 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	30
Start date	12 February 2019
Primary completion	17 February 2023
Estimated completion	17 February 2023
Sites	1 location across Canada

Drugs / interventions tested

• Cognitive Intervention
• Active Control Intervention

Conditions studied

• Schizophrenia — all drugs for Schizophrenia →
• Schizoaffective Disorder — all drugs for Schizoaffective Disorder →

Sponsor

The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre — full company profile →

Who can join

Adults 20 to 60, any sex, with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Verbal episodic memory is an independent declarative memory system associated with language and is responsible for storage and conscious recall of previous personal experiences. Verbal episodic memory is impaired in schizophrenia and is related to patients' functional outcomes. Because no medication has shown clear positive effects on verbal memory impairment in schizophrenia, there is a great need to find effective cognitive remediation treatments (CRT) that could improve this domain in this psychiatric population. Although CRT programs have shown small to moderate positive effects on verbal memory in individuals with schizophrenia, traditional lab-based computerised cognitive interventions have notable attrition rates. In recent years, along with the advancement of technology, the development of Virtual Reality (VR) has allowed the possibility for new training techniques. Previous studies have established the initial feasibility and safety of using VR in schizophrenia population. However, no studies have examined the feasibility, safety and efficacy of combining VR technology with verbal memory training among individuals with schizophrenia. Thus, in this study, we will adapt an exercise from the Strategy for Semantic Association Memory (SESAME; (Guimond et al., 2018; Guimond \& Lepage, 2016) training to a VR environment. We aim to determine the feasibility of using virtual reality in the context of a cognitive remediation intervention and to assess the initial efficacy of our verbal memory training on the use of semantic encoding strategies in people with schizophrenia. We also aim to assess participants' experience and tolerability of the VR training.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.