Clinical and Cognitive Effects of Computer Assisted Cognitive Remediation Method in Turkish Men with Opioid Use Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Substance use disorders are associated with significant cognitive impairments causing many individual or social problems besides poor treatment outcomes. The cognitive remediation method is effective in so many neuropsychiatric disorders. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of this method among individuals with opioid use disorder. Method:60 patients diagnosed with opioid use disorder under buprenorphine-naloxone treatment and who accepted the informed consent were included. Seven patients left the study initially. 53 male patients were randomly assigned to receive treatment in the usual control or cognitive remediation-intervention group. The intervention group completed 3 to 4 sessions a week, 8 different exercises in each session, for 4 weeks, a total of 12 sessions, individually. Addiction Profile Indeks, Barrat Impulsivity Scale-SF, CGI, and Delay Discounting scores were measured before and after the 1 month cognitive Remediation practices. Three months later, patients were contacted, and their remission status was evaluated. Results: In the intervention group; 17(89.5%) people had remission and 2(10.5%) people had relapse. In the control group, 7(31.8%) individuals had remission, and 15(68.2%) had relapsed at the end of the 3 months. It was determined that craving, addiction severity, and self-reported and behavioral impulsivity values decreased while the improvement in treatment response was higher in the intervention group. Conclusion: Our results showed that the computer-assisted cognitive remediation method, in addition to buprenorphine-naloxone treatment, improves treatment response, increases remission, and has positive clinical and cognitive effects on individuals with opioid use disorder. It suggests that cognitive remediation practices can be added to the treatment programs for addiction.

Validity, Reliability, and Factor Structure of the Suicide Crisis Scale in Turkish.

Objective: In our study, we aimed to adapt the Suicide Crisis Inventory (SCI), which can be used specifically to assess the acute phase of suicide, to the Turkish population by examining its Turkish validity and reliability in a non-clinical sample. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 300 university students aged 18-24 years were evaluated online using the Socio-demographic and Clinical Data Form, the SCI, and the Suicide Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ). Criterion validity, discriminative validity, and factor analyses (exploratory and confirmatory) were conducted for the validity of the SCI, and internal consistency and item-total correlations were examined for reliability analyses. Additionally, a linear regression model was constructed to assess the predictive validity of the SCI. The predictive validity of past SCI scores was evaluated using a simple regression model. Results: When the linear regression model was tested with SCI scores as the independent variable and SBQ scores as the dependent variable [F(1-298) = 203.625; P = .000], it was found that the independent variable explained 41% of the variance in the dependent variable (r = 0.637; r 2 = 0.406). SCI scores significantly predicted SBQ scores (t = 14.270; B = 0.047; Bsth = 0.003; ß = 0.647; P = .000). In the validity analysis, the items removed from the scale could be evaluated for the total score, as they did not belong to any factor as originally specified. When items were removed, the total item reliability was Cronbach's alpha = 0.981. Conclusion: We believe that the SCI will be a useful tool in assessing short-term suicide risk in a Turkish sample and in conducting scientific research. The SCI was found to be sufficient for use in a Turkish sample for the evaluation of short-term suicide risk, considering some limitations.