Abstract

Background Schizophrenia is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. This disability is partly attributed to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Cognitive remediation is, on average, an effective intervention to improve cognition and functional outcomes. However, there is limited evidence on who may benefit most from this intervention. Previous primary and secondary studies investigating moderators of cognitive remediation effect in schizophrenia tended to be at high risk of bias, underpowered, or to use suboptimal design and statistical methods; leading to inconsistent and nonreproducible findings across studies.

Objective To identify moderators of cognitive remediation effect on cognitive functioning for patients with schizophrenia by means of individual participant data meta-analysis.

Methods Six randomised controlled trials on cognitive remediation in schizophrenia were available. All potential moderators considered were prespecified based on the previous literature and clinical expertise. Missing data were imputed by the multivariate imputation by chained equations, taking into account the hierarchical structure of the data. Centred, one-stage, individual participant data meta-analysis was carried out using multilevel mixed-effects linear regression.

Results ..to be updated

Limitations Potential measurement bias in individual studies, one-moderator-at-a-time subgroup analyses, studies included were not based on a systematic review.

Conclusions ..to be updated