Rehab rounds: Predicting readiness and responsiveness to skills training: the Micro-Module Learning Test.

Abstract

Introduction by the column editors: In the current era of limited funding for mental health services, public and private agencies would benefit from a means of most cost-effectively deploying specialized resources and personnel. Schizophrenia expresses itself in disparate ways—with great variability in psychopathology, response to treatment, psychosocial functioning, course of illness, and neurocognition. Accordingly, better methods for individualizing treatment planning are required to match patients with appropriate services and effectively allocate scarce treatment resources. This month's column describes the Micro-Module Learning Test, an assessment instrument designed to determine readiness for rehabilitation among individuals with serious mental disorders. The authors demonstrate how this measure can help prescribe a balance of skills training and environmental manipulation that maximizes the probability of improving the individual's level of functioning.