Since these participants were already using medication prior to study baseline, they were compared with another group of patients with psychosis who were using medication only.
Compared with the medication-only group, the participants that received both medication and CBT showed stronger connections in numerous regions of the brain, including those related to emotion.
Subjects also completed a questionnaire that asked them about their recovery from psychosis 8 years after receiving CBT, as well as their overall well-being.
The researchers found that in the 8 years after CBT, participants had spent around 93.5 percent of months in remission from psychosis and around 88.2 percent of months with low affective psychotic symptoms.
Furthermore, the team found that the subjects who showed stronger connections in specific brain regions directly after receiving CBT - particularly in the amygdala and the frontal lobes - had higher psychosis remission rates over the subsequent 8 years.
The amygdala is the brain region associated with the processing of emotions such as fear, while the frontal lobes play a role in thinking and reasoning.