Cognitive Remediation in Bipolar (CRiB2) study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive Remediation in Bipolar (CRiB2): a randomised trial assessing efficacy and mechanisms of cognitive remediation therapy compared to treatment as usual.
IRAS ID
310423
Contact name
Allan Young
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Joint R&D office of King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN10362331
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common and serious condition. Episodes affecting mood and energy can have devastating effects on work, relationships and quality of life. Disability for many people with BD is caused by “cognitive impairment” -difficulties with thinking skills such as memory, attention and planning. Treatment currently focuses on short-term mood but these ongoing, disabling difficulties are often overlooked in healthcare, despite directly affecting abilities to function well in daily life and long-term recovery prospects. For people with schizophrenia, a psychological therapy – cognitive remediation (CR) – provides meaningful, long-lasting benefits. Recent small trials suggest that CR could improve the lives of people with BD, which was supported in our own study.
CRiB2 is a larger study aiming to show whether CR is effective at improving everyday and cognitive functioning and indicate what factors are causing any benefits found. Using a range of sources, we will recruit 200 people with a BD diagnosis (type I or II), aged 18-65, who are free of acute mood symptoms. Participants will be randomly allocated to receive 12 weeks of either evidence-based CR (100 people) or continue usual care without CR (100 people). We will test their cognitive skills and everyday functioning before and after the 12week program, then 3months later. We will compare these two groups to see whether CR is better than usual treatment at improving everyday and cognitive functioning. To explore what makes the therapy effective, we will also test whether CR affects peoples’ knowledge about their cognitive skills, stress hormones and mood instability and whether these changes relate to improved functioning. The study will be conducted across three clinical/academic sites in England (i.e., King’s College London, Oxford University, University of Birmingham). Duration of participation is 25 weeks for each participant and the study will last for 2 years and 9 months.REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0210
Date of REC Opinion
19 Apr 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion