About the project
There has been a lack of positively framed research in schizophrenia, and very little research has been conducted into how a person with schizophrenia arrives at a successful outcome. The main clinical implication from this study is that clinicians might become more aware of which factors contribute to recovery in psychosis and the possibility of recovery, thus contributing to a more hopeful attitude in their patients.
The Oslo Schizophrenia Recovery study (OSR) spanning 10 years, is the first prospective study using the most comprehensive and strict definition of full recovery in a year-by -year assessment as part of a modern longitudinal research design to investigate the rate of full recovery in first-episode schizophrenia patients. Other main aims of this study is to investigate the role of resilience, hope and self-efficacy in recovery and if cognitive trajectories are flat and stable, improve gradually, or change course over time. The sample of first-episode schizophrenia patients is well-defined. The OSR study restricts first episode schizophrenia to participants who are referred to the study within five months of their first contact with a hospital or outpatient clinic, as this definition allows assessment to begin shortly after initial diagnosis.
We have examined cognitive functioning in first-episode schizophrenia patients over a 10-year period and systematically (i.e. at similar time points throughout the 10-year period) compared them with demographically pairwise matched healthy controls using an extensive cognitive battery, the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) (Nuechterlein and Green, 2006). This cognitive battery covers seven cognitive domains that are found to be severely impaired in schizophrenia (Nuechterlein et al., 2004).
To fully understand the early longitudinal course of cognitive function in FES, the OSR study used a repeated assessment design that included yearly neurocognitive assessments with the MCCB during the first 4 years and thereafter every other year - totaling 9 cognitive assessments during the 10-year follow up period. This provides the opportunity to explore several aspects of the course.
The data collection was completed in 2020. 28 well defined first episode schizophrenia patients has been included in the study and the retention rate at 10 year follow up is 79 %.
Selected publications
Torgalsbøen, AK, Mohn, C., Rund, BR. Neurocognitive predictors of remission of symptoms and social and role functioning in the early course of first-episode schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research,2014. DOI: 10.1016/j-psychres. 2014.01.031
Fu, S, Czajkowski, N, Torgalsbøen, AK. The relationship between level of cognitive impairments and functional outcome trajectories in first-episode schizophrenia. Schizophrenia research, 2017, vol.190, 144-149.
Torgalsbøen, AK, Mohn, C, Larøi, F, Fu, S & Czajkowski, N. (2023). A ten-year longitudinal repeated assessment study of cognitive improvement in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and healthy controls: The Oslo Schizophrenia Recovery (OSR) study. Schizophrenia Research. ISSN 0920-9964. 260, s. 92–98.
Funding
The OSR-study is internally funded by the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo
International collaboration
This study involves national and international collaborators such as Psychosis units in Vestre Viken Hospital Trust and the University in Boston, Indianapolis and Los Angeles (UCLA).