Psychological Interventions for Schizophrenia

Summary

This article surveys three types of psychological interventions (i .e individual psychotherapies , group psychotherapies , and psychosocial skills training ) for people with schizophrenia regarding their degree of effectiveness . Assuming patients are receiving adequate therapy , this article poses the following questions

1 . Do any of these interventions reduce relapse or psychopathology in persons with schizophrenia

2 . Do any of these interventions improve social or vocational functioning in persons with schizophrenia

3 . For psychosocial skills training , is there evidence that

this intervention results in skill acquisition by persons with schizophrenia

p the effects persist over time

the effects generalize from the training setting into "real life

As part of their cases studies , the authors used their own patients But they used more from cases they have unearthed from PSYCLIT and MEDLINE databases . They discovered that the research literature and case studies on individual and group psychotherapies are outdated (i .e . at least 10 years old ) and methodologically flawed . However , those s on psychosocial skills training are more acceptable . They are very recent and had more controlled trials

Accordingly , individual therapies do not really reduce symptoms , rates of relapse and hospitalization , nor do they help the patient adjust socially (Gomes-Schwartz 1984 . Some studies suggest that group psychotherapy may be harmful (Schooler and Keith 1993 . Despite the fact that psychosocial skills training appears to be the best of the three types of interventions , studies indicate that this type of therapy at best is limited in terms of the results

The authors admit that the research...