 - Most studies of pharmacological interventions have focused on glutamatergic and cholinergic agents, with fewer targeting on other neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and noradrenaline.
 - These agents are not consistently successful in improving cognition and functioning of patients with schizophrenia.
 - Researches are still in progress to find effective pharmacological interventions for schizophrenia.

Pharmacological approaches

 - Cognitive remediations of schizophrenia are more encouraging than pharmacological approaches, with focus on two broad terms: therapeutic target and therapeutic modality.
 - Such treatments are also found to be able to generalize to improvements in community functioning.

Cognitive remediation

 - The combination of cognitive remediation and pharmacological therapies.
 - The use of non-pharmacological augmentation approaches intend to promote neuroplasticity, such as physical exercise and neurostimulation.

Emerging approaches

There are mixed results from both pharmacological and cognitive perspectives of the interventions for nonsocial cognitive impairments of schizophrenia. Emerging evidence from other perspectives may also be rewarding with future explorations.

Syracuse University

Colby College

- Schizophrenia research has predomi­nantly focused on nonsocial cognition (also referred to as neurocognition).
- Nonsocial cognition includes those commonly considered mental abilities, including speed of processing, verbal learning and memory, visuospatial learning and memory, working memory, attention/vigilance, and reasoning and problem solving.


Nonsocial Cognition 

Green, M. F., Horan, W. P., &amp; Lee, J. (2019). Nonsocial and social cognition in schizophrenia: Current evidence and Future Directions. World Psychiatry, 18(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20624 

Nonsocial and social cognition in schizophrenia: current evidence and future directions

 - Impairments in these abilities of nonsocial cognition are proved to be core features of schizophrenia.
 - Nonsocial cognitive impairments are independent of positive psychotic symptoms, side effects of antipsychotic medications.
 - The impairments are also relatively stable during the time period of the illness and are detectable in different levels in unaffected biological relatives of the patient.

Nature of nonsocial cognitive impairment in schizophrenia

Although it was expected that antipsychotic medications may reduce the symptoms of the patients and enhance the community integration, researches have shown that this did not happen. The impairments of nonsocial cognition and their functional outcome stay as challenges of the field.

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