Educational Technologies for Teaching Social Skills to Individuals With Schizophrenia: Scoping Review.
Nicole Surdyka, Amy Clark, Andrea Duncan
PMID 35880528WHAT IT FOUND
Educational technologies like VR and apps show promise for social skills in schizophrenia, but evidence is mostly from small pilots.
They work best as add-ons to standard therapy, especially when goals are personalized, rather than as standalone cures.
Key findings
01Most included studies were small pilots or preliminary trials, with only seven randomized controlled trials among the 23 articles reviewed.
02Technologies such as mHealth apps and VR were primarily effective as adjuncts to traditional psychosocial treatments, not as replacements.
03Personalizing goals within these digital interventions was associated with higher acceptability, usability, and achievement of social functioning targets.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The search was limited to two databases (MEDLINE and CINAHL), which may have missed relevant studies in other fields. Most included studies were small pilot trials rather than large, robust randomized controlled trials, limiting the certainty of the findings. The review only included literature published up to December 2020, so newer evidence is not captured. There was significant heterogeneity in the types of technologies and outcome measures used across the included studies.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the positive findings in the included pilot studies as proof that these technologies are effective standalone treatments. The review highlights that most evidence comes from small, preliminary studies, and one meta-analysis found no strong evidence for cognitive improvements from computerized training alone.