The cognitive deficits so characteristic of patients with schizophrenia are largely responsible for the poor functional outcome apparent in this patient population and are not ameliorated by existing antipsychotic drugs. The critical unmet need for treatments for the cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia has been addressed in a series of federally funded initiatives, beginning with Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) and continuing with Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (CNTRICS). As reviewed here, these programs have set the stage for an expansion of basic and clinical cognitive neuroscience research to support the discovery and development of cotreatments to be used in conjunction with antipsychotic medications in the treatment of specific cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia.
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