ArticleNPJ schizophrenia2018
Efficacy of different types of cognitive enhancers for patients with schizophrenia: a meta-analysis.
Article in NPJ schizophrenia, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adjunctive agents to antipsychotics in schizophrenia: a systematic umbrella review and recommendations for amino acids, hormonal therapies and anti-inflammatory drugs.BMJ mental health · 2023Pooled it
- Multi-outcome meta-analysis (MOMA) of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia: Revisiting the relevance of human coaching and elucidating interplay between multiple outcomes.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Pooled it
- A study on Mahjong intervention to improve cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia: a pilot, single-blind, randomized, controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Smartphone video games effectively improve cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia: a randomized clinical trial.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation with concurrent cognitive performance targeting posterior parietal cortex vs prefrontal cortex on working memory in schizophrenia: a randomized clinical trial.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Efficacy of Cortical-Hippocampal Target Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) on Associative Memory of Schizophrenia: A Double-Blind, Randomized Sham-Controlled Trial.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Trial
- The Direct and Long-Term Effects of Raloxifene as Adjunctive Treatment for Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders: A Double-Blind, Randomized Clinical Trial.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Trial
- N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) in Schizophrenia Resistant to Clozapine: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial Targeting Negative Symptoms.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2022Trial
- Quantitative electroencephalography parameters as neurophysiological biomarkers of schizophrenia-related deficits: A Phase II substudy of patients treated with iclepertin (BI 425809).Translational psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Confirmatory Efficacy of Cognitive Enhancement Therapy for Early Schizophrenia: Results From a Multisite Randomized Trial.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2022Trial
- The effects of eszopiclone on sleep spindles and memory consolidation in schizophrenia: a randomized clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Improving care for cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: current perspectives and opportunities in Portugal (a consensus development conference).Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Efficacy and safety of iclepertin (BI 425809) with adjunctive computerized cognitive training in patients with schizophrenia.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2025Article
- Towards Enhancing Drug Development Methodology to Treat Cognitive Impairment Associated With Schizophrenia and Other Neuropsychiatric Conditions: Insights From 2 Decades of Clinical Trials.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2025Review
- Ginkgo Biloba as a niche theme cognitive enhancer agent, 1420 dokumen of Scopus database. A bibliometric study from 1988 to 2024.F1000Research · 2025Article
- Exploring Cognitive Deficits and Neuromodulation in Schizophrenia: A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Review
- Effects of chronic stress on cognitive function - From neurobiology to intervention.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Review
- Is It Possible to Combine Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation and Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions in Schizophrenia? A Critical Review.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Activation of prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons ameliorates working memory deficit even under clinically comparable antipsychotic treatment in a mouse model of schizophrenia.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Drug targeting in psychiatric disorders - how to overcome the loss in translation?Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 9 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia, which is predictive for functional outcomes and is, therefore, a treatment target in itself. Yet, literature on efficacy of different pharmaco-therapeutic options is inconsistent. This quantitative review provides an overview of studies that investigated potential cognitive enhancers in schizophrenia. We included pharmacological agents, which target different neurotransmitter systems and evaluated their efficacy on overall cognitive functioning and seven separate cognitive domains. In total, 93 studies with 5630 patients were included. Cognitive enhancers, when combined across all different neurotransmitter systems, which act on a large number of different mechanisms, showed a significant (yet small) positive effect size of 0.10 (k = 51, p = 0.023; 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.18) on overall cognition. Cognitive enhancers were not superior to placebo for separate cognitive domains. When analyzing each neurotransmitter system separately, agents acting predominantly on the glutamatergic system showed a small significant effect on overall cognition (k = 29, Hedges' g = 0.19, p = 0.01), as well as on working memory (k = 20, Hedges' g = 0.13, p = 0.04). A sub-analysis of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI) showed a small effect on working memory (k = 6, Hedges' g = 0.26, p = 0.03). Other sub-analyses were positively nonsignificant, which may partly be due to the low number of studies we could include per neurotransmitter system. Overall, this meta-analysis showed few favorable effects of cognitive enhancers for patients with schizophrenia, partly due to lack of power. There is a lack of studies involving agents acting on other than glutamatergic and cholinergic systems, especially of those targeting the dopaminergic system.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.