Improving Social Cognition and Social Behaviour in Various Brain Disorders

Launched by UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER GRONINGEN · Mar 18, 2024

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is investigating a treatment called T-ScEmo, which aims to improve social cognition and behavior in patients with various neurological disorders, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), and brain tumors. Social cognition refers to how we understand and respond to social situations, including recognizing emotions in others and showing empathy. Many patients with these conditions struggle with social interactions, which can greatly affect their quality of life. The study seeks to determine if T-ScEmo can help improve these skills in patients who have these challenges, based on promising results from earlier research with patients who had traumatic brain injuries.

To participate in this trial, individuals must be between 18 and 75 years old and have a neurological disorder that affects their social cognition, such as problems with understanding emotions or showing empathy. Participants should also be in a stable condition, meaning their health is not rapidly changing. Throughout the trial, participants can expect to engage in activities designed to enhance their social skills, with the hope that they will see improvements in their daily interactions and overall quality of life. It’s important to note that participants will need support from a close family member or friend who can help provide feedback during the study.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Patients should have social cognitive disorders that show by means of problems in emotion recognition, perspective taking, ToM, showing empathy, or behaviour.
• • Patients should have a neurological disorder; stroke (including patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage), Multiple sclerosis (MS), both relapsing remitting, primary and secondary progressive variants, Brain tumours (meningioma's, low grade gliomas) and other categories of neurological disorders including brain damage: (i.e. infections (meningitis, encephalitis), post anoxic encephalopathy, adult survivors of childhood brain tumours).
• • Patients should be aged between 18 and 75
• • Patients should be in the chronic stage (\> 6 months post-acute injuries) or their medical condition should be relatively stable (for patients with a slow progressive conditions), to be judged by the treating medical or psychological specialist, in order to be able to profit from treatment for a reasonable time period.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Serious neurodegenerative or psychiatric conditions (including addiction) interfering with treatment
• • Incapacity to act, to be judged by the neuropsychologist and/or neurologist
• • Serious cognitive problems (aphasia, neglect, amnesia, dementia) and/or serious behavioural problems (aggression, apathy) interfering with treatment, to be judged by neuropsychologist.
• • Serious (other) medical conditions or physical inability hindering patients to come to the hospital/rehabilitation centre
• • Not being available of a close other (life partner, family member, close friend) who can fill out the proxy questionnaires
• • Not willing to give permission to send important/unexpected findings to the general practitioner.
• • Unexpected progression of disease during the study can be a reason to exclude the patient
• • Not sufficient command of the Dutch Language.