Strategies for Achieving Better Cognitive Health in Individuals with Schizophrenia Spectrum: A Focus on the Canadian Landscape: Stratégies pour atteindre une meilleure santé cognitive chez les personnes souffrant du spectre de la schizophrénie : un regard sur le paysage canadien.

\n Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) are a group of psychiatric disorders characterized by positive and negative symptoms as well as cognitive impairment that can significantly affect daily functioning.We reviewed evidence-based strategies for improving cognitive function in patients with SSDs, focusing on the Canadian landscape.Although antipsychotic medications can address the positive symptoms of SSDs, cognitive symptoms often persist, causing functional impairment and reduced quality of life. Moreover, cognitive function in patients with SSDs is infrequently assessed in clinical practice, and evidence-based recommendations for addressing cognitive impairment in people living with schizophrenia are limited. While cognitive remediation (CR) can improve several domains of cognitive function, most individuals with SSDs are currently not offered such an intervention. While the development of implementation strategies for CR is underway, available and emerging pharmacological treatments may help overcome the limited capacity for psychosocial approaches. Furthermore, combining pharmacological with non-pharmacological interventions may improve outcomes compared to pharmacotherapy or CR alone.This review highlights the challenges and discusses the potential solutions related to the assessment and management of cognitive impairment to help mental health-care practitioners better manage cognitive impairment and improve daily functioning in individuals with SSDs.Improving Thinking Skills in People With Schizophrenia: A Focus on Canada Plain Language Summary Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) are mental health conditions that can cause a mix of symptoms making everyday life difficult for people. For example, some people might experience positive symptoms like seeing and hearing things that are not there, having false believes, or feeling suspicious. Others might experience negative symptoms like isolating from social interactions, having trouble showing emotion, or finding it hard to connect with others. Finally, they might also have trouble with thinking skills, like paying attention, planning and organizing, remembering things, or understanding social cues. While some medicines can help with some of the symptoms, they often do not help with improving thinking skills. In addition, these thinking problems are not checked often enough in patients with SSDs. In fact, there are not many proven ways to help with these issues. One method that can help with thinking skills is called cognitive remediation (CR), but it is not offered to most people with SSDs. There are ongoing efforts to make CR more available. It is also possible that CR may be combined with new medicines to make it work better than using just one treatment. This article looks at ways to improve thinking skills in people with SSDs, with a focus on what is happening in Canada. We present the challenges and possible solutions for checking and managing thinking problems, to help health-care workers better care for people with SSDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Les troubles du spectre de la schizophrénie (TSS) sont un groupe de troubles psychiatriques caractérisés par des symptômes positifs et négatifs ainsi que par une déficience cognitive qui peuvent affecter significativement le fonctionnement quotidien.Nous avons examiné des stratégies fondées sur des données probantes pour améliorer la fonction cognitive chez des patients souffrant de TSS, en étant axés sur le paysage canadien.Bien que les médicaments antipsychotiques puissent traiter les symptômes positifs des TSS, les symptômes cognitifs persistent souvent, causant une déficience fonctionnelle et une qualité de vie réduite. De plus, la fonction cognitive chez les patients souffrant de TSS est moins évaluée dans la pratique clinique, et les recommandations fondées sur des données probantes pour traiter les troubles cognitifs chez les personnes vivant avec la schizophrénie sont limitées. Bien que la remédiation cognitive (RC) puisse améliorer plusieurs domaines de la fonction cognitive, la plupart des personnes souffrant de TSS ne se voient actuellement pas proposer une telle intervention. Alors que le développement de stratégies de mise en œuvre de la RC est en cours, les traitements pharmacologiques disponibles et émergents peuvent aider à surmonter la capacité limitée des approches psychosociales. De plus, la combinaison d'interventions pharmacologiques et non pharmacologiques peut améliorer les résultats par rapport à la pharmacothérapie ou à la RC seule.Cette revue met en évidence les défis et discute des solutions potentielles liées à l'évaluation et à la gestion des déficiences cognitives pour aider les praticiens de la santé mentale à mieux gérer les déficiences cognitives et à améliorer le fonctionnement quotidien des personnes souffrant de TSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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