Transdiagnostic Cognitive Control Training for Patients Waiting for Outpatient Psychotherapy: Randomized Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Cognitive control is vital for emotion regulation and often impaired in mental disorders like depression and anxiety.
• Cognitive control training shows promise for improving emotion regulation and reducing distress in repetitive negative thinking disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of mobile cognitive control training in a transdiagnostic outpatient sample awaiting psychotherapy.
• To assess the impact of cognitive control training on mental distress, emotion regulation, and cognitive control abilities.

Main Methods:

• A randomized clinical superiority trial involving 80 outpatients with various mental disorders.
• Participants received 10 sessions of either mobile cognitive control training (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test - PASAT) or an active control task.
• Outcomes including mental distress (Hopkins Symptom Checklist-11), cognitive control, emotion regulation, and disorder-specific symptoms were measured at baseline, post-training, and at 3- and 6-month follow-ups.

Main Results:

• Cognitive control training did not significantly improve global mental distress immediately post-training.
• Significant improvements in cognitive control were observed immediately post-training and maintained at 3- and 6-month follow-ups.
• At 3-month follow-up, participants showed reduced difficulties in emotion regulation and anxiety symptoms. At 6-month follow-up, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation and reduced social anxiety were noted.

Conclusions:

• Mobile cognitive control training (PASAT) did not demonstrate superiority in improving global mental distress in a transdiagnostic outpatient sample.
• While not directly impacting overall distress, the training showed efficacy in enhancing cognitive control and, at later follow-ups, improving emotion regulation and specific anxiety symptoms.
• Larger studies are recommended to explore mediating pathways and moderating factors, such as the number of training sessions, for mobile cognitive control interventions.