Video Game-Like Programs Could Treat Schizophrenia

derGoldstein writes "Discovery is pointing to an ongoing study by Sophia Vinogradov, professor of psychiatry at UC-San Francisco, who is 'trying to determine whether computer-based cognitive remediation, a type of brain training through video game-like programs, is effective for treating schizophrenia. ... In a handful of blinded and randomized trials with computer-based training, Vinogradov has reported cognitive improvements for both recently diagnosed patients and those living with the disorder for several years. So far, treatment — such as 50 hours of training over a 10-week period — has shown great promise for patients when compared to control groups.'"

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[account_deleted]

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[account_deleted]

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[swanzilla]

Hypothesis: Americans would watch a program about logging.
Prediction: They will.
Experiment: (see Discovery Channel lineup)
Outcome: Americans will watch a program about logging. There exist several.

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[derGoldstein]

And what does National Geographic have to do with "Toughest Prisons"? They need to fill slots and they need to fill them with stuff at least some people will watch. It doesn't delegitimize other shows on the channel/s, and certainly not the organizations as a whole.

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[CSMoran]

I'd watch a good program on logging techniques and good practice myself. Like what you do when the disk is full and you can't log that.

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[somersault]

To everyone else: Do NOT click on this link.

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[Sylak]

I don't know, I think it's a valid expression of the GP's Mental Illness ;)

Tangentially related

[derGoldstein]

A blog post about mental illness and startups [tesser.org]. In the case of some mental illnesses/conditions, behaviorism can play a bigger part than the chemistry. It's an absurdly difficult subject to research, and progress is slow, but mental illness is up there with obesity on the watch-list of developed-world epidemics.

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[istartedi]

A blog post about mental illness and startups.

My tweet [twitter.com] along a similar line, from some time ago.

The study itself

[mrclevesque]

Neuroplasticity-Based Cognitive Training in Schizophrenia [oxfordjournals.org]

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[CSMoran]

Well put.

Re:So... about those epidemics...

[derGoldstein]

I'm a firm atheist, but I don't think that the analogy to mental illness is entirely valid. Religion is more about extreme conditioning. If you have it hammered into you from an early age, in a severe manner, the mind will cling to it just as it does to physiological urges. Convincing people that theistic religion is a "delusion" only works in an environment where some freedoms are allowed -- the freedom to think for yourself, and the freedom to question anything you want to. In a fundamentalist environment, this will get you (at best) in prison.

Many people, after spending enough time in such an extreme environment, are beyond help. They're neurologically "fused" with their beliefs.

Summary is misleading. article inacurate

[Jmc23]

First. this has nothing to do with treating schizophrenia. it is about treating low levels of cognitive functioning that are associated with schizophrenia.

If using the proper probability value for such a small, and inadequate, sample there are no significant effects whatsoever.

The cognition training given only has video-game like rewards, there is nothing video game about it. Confounding factors which they did not mention are that the test group was exposed to one type of computer training with reduced

without insurance, who gives a fuck?

[decora]

it doesnt matter if they cured cancer tomorrow. if it cost more than a few thousand dollars, most of the people on this planet could never afford it.

without health insurance, all of these wonderful medical breakthroughs dont mean anything.