Cognitive Remediation with Psychopaths, Externalized Personalities, and the Mentally Depressed

Cognitive remediation is a type of therapeutic method practiced by neuroscientists and other professionals involved in treating psychopathological diseases that harm specific types of cognitive functioning.  The method used in cognitive remediation is putting a patient through “brain exercises” where they are asked to perform certain tasks that correspond to the cognitive issue the patient is suffering in.  Cognitive remediation can be thought of as a type of physical therapy for the cognitive functioning in ones brain.  An important thing to note is that different types of cognitive remediation are intended to contribute to the development of specific types of cognitive function a psychopathological disease negatively impacts.

One study that really stresses the importance in distinguishing the differences in psychopathological disorders and that focuses on the effects of certain types of cognitive remediation on different disorders is a study conducted by Dr. Baskin-Sommers, Dr. Curtin, and Dr. Newman in which male prison mates who were assessed and believed to be diagnosed with either psychopathy or externalizing personalities were randomly put into different cognitive remediation groups.  The first group received the type of treatment that was hoped to improve psychopaths, “interpersonal and situational cues and changes in their environment.”  This group was composed of randomly selected psychopath and externalized inmates in order to see the effect it would have on them.  The second group was similar to the first group but had a cognitive remediation treatment that hoped to benefit inmates with externalizing traits by learning, “ to engage affective cognitive control by acting rather than over-reacting to affective information.  The results of this study showed that psychopaths that received training focusing on attention to context did have improved performances where as externalizing inmates did not.  However, externalizing inmates did see performance improvement when they were in the group that focused on training towards affective cognitive control, in which the psychopath members did not show any improvement.

Another place where the effects of cognitive remediation are being theorized to be of benefit is in patients with major depressive disorder.  Richard Porter, a researcher in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago in New Zealand believes that cognitive remediation oriented towards improving function in pre-frontal cortical areas of the brain, as well as their connections with the limbic system might contain positive results.  Another topic touched upon by Richard Porter is how previous attempts to incorporate cognitive remediation into the caring of MDD patients have shown to be inconclusive.  However, there appears to be a promising hope that there can beneficial effects.

Cognitive remediation is an incredible method that continues to be enhances and tested to address specific needs of patients who experience cognitive functioning deficiencies.  It brings an alternative way to help patient functioning without the need of pharmaceuticals.  However, there can be room for concern and further evaluation in order to more specifically determine the amount of work that needs to be put into a remediation program in order to acquire a certain degree and duration of cognitive improvement.

Baskin-Sommers, A.R., Curtin, J.J., & Newman, J.P. (2014). Altering the Cogntive-Affective Dysfunctions of Psychopathic and Externalizing Offender Subtypes with Cognitive Remediation. Clinical Psychological Science.

Porter, R., Bowie, C., Jordan, J., & Malhi, G. (2013). Cognitive remediation as a treatment for major depression: A rationale, review of evidence and recommendations for future research. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 1165-1175.