To investigate the effect of computer-assisted cognitive remediation therapy (CACR) on the improvement of cognitive functioning in patients with major depressive disorder during the recovery period.

Sixty-seven patients with major depressive disorder, during the recovery period, were included according to the inclusion criteria. All of them were from Hangzhou Seventh People’s psychiatry department and were selected during the September 2016 to September 2018 time period and were randomized into the CACR group and the observation group. The previously used conventional drug treatment was continued for 8 weeks in both groups, but an additional 8-weeks was given to the CACR group, mainly for intensive attention training and memory. The CACR training time was 8 weeks, once a day each for attention and memory training for 20 minutes. Before treatment and at the end of the 8-week treatment, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Trail Making Test A, Trail Making Test B, and Stroop test were used to measure cognitive function.

67 patients with depression during the remission period were included. The control group included 32 patients, 18 males (57%) and 14 females (43%), aged (29.0±9.2) years old; 35 patients in the intervention group, 20 males (56%) and 15 females (44%), aged (28.0±9.2) years old. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of gender, age, years of education, scores on the Chinese version of Webster's adult intelligence scale, scores on Hamilton depression scale, and course of illness. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of WCST performance, TMT performance, and scores on the Stroop test at baseline (P>0.05). After the 8-week treatment, the CACR group demonstrated better performance on the mean number of trials [(76.8±14.3)vs.(83.6±14.6)], the number of correct classifications [(27.9±1.8) vs.(26.6±2.6)], perseverative errors [(24.4±3.3)vs.(27.4±4.8)]，non-perseverative errors [(17.97±3.1)vs.(22.2±4.3)], and the mean time for completing part B of TMT [(86.1±15.6)vs.(119.6±16.2)]. However, there were no significant differences between the groups on mean number of categories completed, mean time for completing part A of TMT, the right numbers in Stroop-C and Stroop-CW, and the completed numbers in Stroop-C and Stroop-CW (P>0.05).

CACR can effectively improve the cognitive function in patients with major depressive disorder who have stabilized.

Depressive disorder; Cognition Disorders; Computer-assisted; Cognitive remediation therapy