Abstract
EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE RETRAINING ON ATTENTION AMONG PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of Cognitive Retraining on Attention among Patients with Schizophrenia. The patients with schizophrenia suffer a lot due to their cognitive disturbance resulting in impairment in poor cognitive functioning, so they need interventions. Pre experimental one group pretest and posttest design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted at Sri Ramachandra Hospital, Porur, Chennai. The samples were patients with schizophrenia admitted at psychiatric ward, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Using convenience sampling technique, 30 samples were selected. There was a statistically significant difference in the cognitive in Stroop Test, Trail Making Test - A and Trail Making Test B with Paired ‘t’ test values of 14.840, 21.643 and 32.032 at p<0.001.in the post test. There was a statistically significant association existing between the Trail - A Test scores and the demographic variables, such as marital status, duration of illness and relationship pattern of caregivers at p<0.05 in the posttest. Thus the study concludes thatattention retraining interventions enhance cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Cognitive retraining aims to enhance cognitive functioning that in turn enhances socialand occupational functioning.