Metacognitive training for negative symptoms: Support for the cognitive model

Abstract

Developing effective treatment options for negative symptoms of psychotic disorders remains a major unmet treatment need and area for further research. In a recent uncontrolled study by the main author, Metacognition Training (MCT) for negative symptoms was found to lead to fewer negative symptoms, less stigma and increased self-rated reflective ability. As the analysis examined negative symptoms as a whole, we here performed an additional analysis on individual negative symptom items as recent research has suggested that negative symptoms are best conceptualized through a five-factor model. It was found that the intervention led to changes specifically on sociality and blunted affect (with large effect sizes), which might reflect changes in both intrapersonal and interpersonal (meta)cognitive processes.