PIENSA: Development of an Early Intervention Program for Adolescents With Early-Onset Psychosis and Their Families

Role of Executive Function in Response to a Problem Solving Based Psychoeducational Intervention in Adolescents with Psychosis: The PIENSA Trial Revisited

“…The main clinical trial has comprehensively been described elsewhere [1][2][3]. In brief, this was a two-year follow-up, randomized, rater-blinded, outpatient trial on the efficacy of a problem solving based PE group intervention implemented in parallel for patients with early-onset psychosis and their families compared to an NS group intervention.…”

“…Continued beneficial effects in clinical and functional outcomes have previously been reported for participants in a nine-month problem solving based psychoeducational group intervention (PE) for adolescents with psychosis and their families (i.e., the PIENSA program [1]), at the end [2] and two years after the intervention [3], relative to a nonstructured group intervention (NS). We found an improvement in negative symptoms and a reduction in the number of visits to the emergency department in the group of adolescents with psychosis who participated in psychoeducational (PE) treatment compared to the nonstructured (NS) group at the end of the intervention [2].…”

“…Particularly, the implementation of a problem-solving framework within cognitive remediation programs has shown not only to improve executive deficits but also to contribute to successful and sustained cognitive and functional recovery [18,[29][30][31][32][33]. Moreover, the implementation of these strategies together with multifamily group psychoeducation has shown better results than cognitive remediation or psychoeducation alone in improving the course of psychosis [34] In this context, problem-solving strategies [35] have been defined as an essential component of our PE group intervention [1]. Although the inclusion of this component within the PIENSA (Programa de Intervención en Psicosis Adolescente; Intervention Program in Adolescents with Psychosis) clinical program was aimed to prevent relapses and facilitate self-management in stressful situations, plausible remediation of executive function through enhancement of problem-solving skills may play a role in the observed beneficial effects of the PE intervention [2,3].…”

Early psychosis detection program in Chile: A first step for the South American challenge in psychosis research

“…All participants, and their family members, are offered a standardized psychoeducational group intervention at baseline and every 6 months, following the protocol from the Programa de Intervención en Psicosis Adolescente (PIENSA) program from Spain (Ruiz‐Sancho et al, ). Likewise, all participants are offered cognitive behavioural therapy, individualized for each participant, but generally comprising of development of social skills, problem solving abilities, emotional regulation techniques, management of cognitive distortions and behavioural modification.…”

“…Antidepressants, anxiolytics and mood stabilizers are used as needed to target other non-psychotic symptoms.Mild to moderate substance abuse is treated using psychoeducation and standard motivational interviewing techniques, with cognitive behavioural therapy used to sustain abstinence. The development of more severe abuse or dependence prompts referral to specialty programs for abuse and dependence(Figure 1).All participants, and their family members, are offered a standardized psychoeducational group intervention at baseline and every 6 months, following the protocol from the Programa de Intervención en Psicosis Adolescente (PIENSA) program from Spain(Ruiz-Sancho et al, 2012). Likewise, all participants are offered cognitive behavioural therapy, individualized for each participant, but generally comprising of development of social skills, problem solving abilities, emotional regulation techniques, management of cognitive distortions and behavioural modification.…”