Brain training app that could help schizophrenia sufferers live a normal life A new brain training app developed to help improve the memory of people with schizophrenia could save taxpayers thousands of pounds, a study has claimed.The computer game has been designed by neuroscientists at Cambridge University to help patients recover their ability to carry out everyday tasks that rely on having a good memory.Its aim is to train the brain in episodic memory, which helps people remember events such as where they parked their car in a multi-storey car park or where they left a set of keys.  Researchers carried out a study which found that schizophrenia patients who played the game regularly for a month were four times better at remembering these kinds of things than non-players.Schizophrenia is estimated to cost £13.1billion per year in total in the UK. The long-term mental health condition can cause a range of symptoms including hallucinations and delusions.But current medications to treat these symptoms cause debilitating side effects including poor memory, which can stop sufferers being able to work or study.As yet no medication has been developed to treat the impairment - which is why scientists at Cambridge University developed the brain training app to help.The computer game is called Wizard and is aimed at people who suffer with poor episodic memory - one of the main side effects of schizophrenia drugs. Researchers assigned 22 participants, who had been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia, to either the cognitive training group or a control group at random.Participants in the training group played the memory game for a total of eight hours over a four-week period.Those in the control group continued their treatment as usual.Scientists found that the patients who had played the memory game made significantly fewer errors in memory testing.Those who were most motivated also performed best at the game, which scientists say is important as lack of motivation is another common aspect of schizophrenia.Professor Barbara Sahakian, of the Department of Psychiatry, said: 'We need a way of treating the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as problems with episodic memory, but slow progress is being made towards developing a drug treatment.'So this proof-of-concept study is important because it demonstrates that the memory game can help where drugs have so far failed.'Because the game is interesting, even those patients with a general lack of motivation are spurred on to continue the training.'Professor Peter Jones, also from the Department of Psychiatry, added: 'These are promising results and suggest that there may be the potential to use game apps to not only improve a patient's episodic memory, but also their functioning in activities of daily living.'We will need to carry out further studies with larger sample sizes to confirm the current findings, but we hope that, used in conjunction with medication and current psychological therapies, this could help people with schizophrenia minimise the impact of their illness on everyday life.' The researchers say even small improvements in cognitive functions could help patients transition to independent living and working.They say this would substantially reduce direct and indirect costs on the country as well as improving the well-being and health of patients.A professional game designer was used to develop the game, who ensured it was fun, attention-grabbing, easy to understand and motivating.After each hour of play participants in the game-playing group rated their enjoyment and motivation to continue playing the game with a score of zero to 100. Professor Sahakian and colleagues began a collaboration with the team behind the popular brain training app Peak, and the new game is available through Peak's iOS app.