Neurocognitive functioning and outcome of the Illness Management and Recovery Program for
clients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder
Sammanfattning
he relationship between psychosocial programming and neurocognition has been established in
previous research, but has not been explored in the context of the Illness Management and Recovery
Program (IMR). This study examined associations between neurocognition and illness self-
management skills acquisition, based on two previous trials of IMR. Neurocognitive functioning was
assessed at baseline and post-treatment in 53 participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective
disorder who completed the IMR. Illness self-management was measured by the client and clinician
versions of the Illness Management and Recovery Scale. Statistical analyses investigated
improvements in neurocognitive functioning and possible association between illness self-
management skills acquisition and neurocognitive functioning. Speed of processing as measured by
the Trail Making Test A, was related to client-reported acquisition of illness self-management skills,
before and after controlling for psychiatric symptoms and medication, but did not predict
improvement in clinician ratings of client illness self-management skills. However, when controlling
for client session attendance rates, the association between speed of processing and client-reported
illness self-management skills acquisition ceased to be statistically significant, which suggests that
compromised neurocognitive functioning does not reduce response to training in illness self-
management in itself. The association between the frequency of attended IMR sessions and outcome
of the IMR seems to decrease the negative impact of compromised neurocognition on illness self-
management skills acquisition. Also, clients with slower speed of processing may experience less
benefit from the IMR and may attend fewer sessions.