Consensus Cognitive Battery

For more details regarding the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery,
go to the MATRICS Assessment, Inc. website: www.matricsinc.org.

Rand Panel Meeting Results

Average Medians for the Categories of Each Candidate Test

MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery

MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, Beta Version
pdf version

MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, Final Version
pdf version

Psychometric Study for the Consensus Battery for Clinical Trials in Schizophrenia

Overview | Specific Aims | Study Design | Subjects | Site Selection

Overview

The MATRICS Psychometric Study is based on Option 1 "Evaluating Recommended Cognitive Battery" from the initial MATRICS application. One of the key products of the MATRICS contract is an NIMH consensus cognitive battery that will be used for clinical trials of cognitive enhancing agents in schizophrenia. The MATRICS Neurocognition Committee is overseeing the process of selecting measures for the NIMH-MATRICS Cognitive Battery for Clinical Trials through a series of conference calls, a consensus meeting of relevant experts (held in April 2003), and a meeting using the RAND Panel method for evaluation of tests (to be held September 29th 2003). The RAND Panelists will evaluate tests within each of seven cognitive domains that were selected at the April consensus meeting: working memory, attention / vigilance, verbal memory and learning, visual memory and learning, speed of processing, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition. After the RAND Panel makes its ratings, the MATRICS Neurocognition Committee will use these ratings to generate the initial "beta" version of the test battery. This version will be longer than the final battery because it will include one extra test for each of the cognitive domains to examine the psychometric properties of the most promising cognitive tests.

The MATRICS Psychometric Study will serve several functions and will be divided into two phases. The first phase will be to collect data on 150 patients with schizophrenia. In this phase, we will assess the test-retest reliability and relationship to functional status for each of the cognitive tests. Based on this information, the final selection of tests for the cognitive test battery will be made. This phase of the study will also examine and compare the psychometric properties of "proxy" measures of functional outcome and self-report measures of cognition. These measures will be selected based on suggestions from the MATRICS Outcomes Committee, and discussions with the NIMH Project Officer. In the second phase, we will administer the final test battery to a standardization sample of 300 people from the community (equal numbers of males and females for three age groups: 20-39, 40-49, and 50-59).

Specific Aims

Phase 1: Psychometric study of schizophrenia patients with NIMH-MATRICS Cognitive Battery for Clinical Trials

Aim 1: To examine the short term test-retest reliability of tests within the beta version of the NIMH-MATRICS consensus battery

Aim 2: To examine the relationships between performance on tests within the beta version of the NIMH-MATRICS battery and functional status in the community

Aim 3: To use the information from Aims 1 and 2 to decide on the measures that will comprise the final NIMH-MATRICS battery

Aim 4: For candidates for "proxy measures" of functional outcome and subjective self-report measures of cognitive functioning, to examine test-retest reliability and relationships to cognitive performance and community functioning

Phase 2: Standardization sample of representative controls for the NIMH-MATRICS battery

Aim 5: To administer the NIMH-MATRICS battery to a representative sample of community controls stratified by age and sex to provide norms based on a common standardization sample

Study Design

Phase 1: Study of schizophrenia patients with NIMH-MATRICS consensus battery

A total of 176 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were assessed at baseline, 167 of the patients were retested at 4 weeks. The components of the assessment battery are listed below.

Baseline	Week 4
Consent and Diagnostic Interview	Cognitive battery
Cognition Battery (beta version)	Proxy measures
Proxy measures of Functional Capacity	Interview-based Measures of Cognition
Interview-based Measures of Cognition	Symptom Ratings
Symptom ratings
Community Functioning Measures

Phase 2: Standardization sample of representative controls for the cognitive battery

MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery for Clinical Trials, Beta Version

A total of 300 non-psychiatric individuals from the community will serve as a standardization sample for the consensus cognitive battery. Subjects will be recruited through the method of "random digit dialing" in which an outside company (Survey Sampling, Inc.) generates phone numbers within designated zip codes through a random process and then checks to ensure that the numbers belong to residences. To protect confidentiality, no names are provided. To obtain the desired sample size, we will initially recruit 83 potential subjects per site through this method. We expect that 14 of these subjects will not show for the assessments, and that an additional 9 will be excluded on screening. These projects leave 60 subjects for 5 sites, and an estimated total of 300 subjects. Each participant will receive a brief screening interview and the final consensus cognition battery on one occasion.

Subjects

Phase 1: Study of schizophrenia patients with NIMH-MATRICS consensus battery

Subjects were selected according to the following selection criteria:

• diagnosis of schizophrenia based on diagnostic interview
• no medication changes in past month and none anticipated for the next month
• outpatient or post-acute inpatient status
• age 18-65
• no substance dependence in past 6 months
• no substance abuse in past month
• no clinically significant neurological disease or head injury as determined by medical history
• ability to understand spoken English sufficiently to comprehend testing procedures that are available in English
• ability to comprehend the consent form appropriately

Phase 2: Standardization sample of representative controls for the cognitive battery

Subjects for this phase will be selected according to the following selection criteria:

• no history of psychotic disorder based on a screening form
• age 20-59
• no clinically significant neurological disease or head injury based on a screening form
• ability to understand spoken English sufficiently to comprehend testing procedures
• no significant of history of alcohol or drug abuse that would affect neuropsychological test performance, based on screening form

Selection of Sites

Sites were selected that:

1. had extensive experience with conducting clinical trials with schizophrenia samples and
2. had local expertise in neuropsychological assessment.

Several members of this project are actively involved with the MATRICS contract, including Drs. Green, Nuechterlein, Gold, and Keefe. The final site selection was based on discussions with Dr. Fenton, the Project Officer for the MATRICS. The five sites are:

UCLA: Green and Nuechterlein
Maryland Psychiatric Research Center: Gold
Massachusetts Mental Health Center: Seidman
Duke University: Keefe
University of Kansas: Preskorn and Baade

Publication Plan

The results of this psychometric study will be published as two separate papers in peer-review journals; one for each component of the study. The first paper will detail the test-retest reliability and the relationships to functional status of the beta version of the cognitive battery in the sample of 150 schizophrenic patients. The second paper will present the results of the final cognitive battery from the 300 subjects of the standardization sample.