Application of cognitive restructuring therapy for management of cognitive errors and attribution style of patients with schizophrenia

Pages: 1715-1718
Archana Kumari Das and Masroor Jahan (Department of Clinical Psychology at Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry & Allied Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand)

Cognitive dysfunction represents a core deficit in schizophrenia, and a number of studies (Green, 1996; Green et al., 2000) illustrate how cognitive deficits may strongly influence the clinical presentation and daily functioning of people with this illness. Cognitive therapy based on the concept that the way we think about things affects how we feel emotionally. Cognitive restructuring (CR) can be thought as if an umbrella term for a variety of cognitive-based approaches aimed at reducing negative automatic thoughts and ameliorating maladaptive schemas. Present study is aimed to reduce cognitive errors and improved attribution style in the patients with schizophrenia using cognitive restructuring therapy. Method: Selected Five (5) patient having Schizophrenia according to ICD-10 DCR from different inpatient department from Tertiary mental health care setup were analysed using the simple random sampling technique. After taking informed consent from the patient, socio-demographic and Attribution Style Questionnaire and Cognitive Error Questionnaire were administered. All the five patients were assessed in pre-level and then after intervention of 18 sessions, they were assessed at post-level. Data was analyzed with the help of Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for statistical analysis. Result & Discussion: Results showed the significant differences in all the domains of Attribution Style Questionnaire and Cognitive Error Questionnaire, in pre & post assessment at significant level of 0.01. In the study, it was found that application of cognitive restructuring therapy in the cases of schizophrenia has some effect in resolving cognitive error areas such as; catastrophization, over genralisation, personalisation and selective-abstraction as well improvement in their attribution style in areas such as; internality, stability and globality at bed as well good situation. Though mixed results in cases shows attribution style of the participants changed from the previous understanding due to use of cognitive restructuring therapy.