Improving emotion recognition in schizophrenia with "VOICES": An on-line prosodic self-training

Emotion recognition (ER) deficits have been extensively demonstrated in schizophrenia. These deficiencies are not only restricted to facial emotion recognition but also include emotional prosody (tone of the voice) recognition deficits. They have been significantly associated with symptom severity and poor social functioning. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy, in real clinical conditions, of an online self-training prosodic game included in the Social Cognition rehabilitation program e-Motional Training.

A randomized, single-blind multicenter clinical trial was conducted with 50 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The control group was treated with Treatment-as-usual (TAU), based on drug therapy, case management and individual and group psychotherapy (not focused on Social Cognition). The intervention group was treated with TAU plus the employment of Voices, an online self-training program devised for prosodic rehabilitation.

Linear regression was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in emotion recognition measured with the Reading the Mind in the Voice-Spanish Version (RMV-SV).

There were statistically significant differences between the intervention and control group measured with RMV-SV (β = 3,6[IC 95%], p<0.001), with a response variable in RMV post R2 = 0,617.

Voices, a prosodic rehabilitation game included in e-Motional Training, seems to be a promising tool for improving emotional voice recognition deficits in schizophrenia, filling the need for such interventions.