THE NEED FOR PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSIONALISM - AN INTEGRATIVE VIEW

Some decades ago a diagnosis of schizophrenia meant being condemned to long-term institutional life. Today the situation is incomparably mor e positive but new problems have appeared that need to be tackled by t he professional. The professionalism required today is different from that of the 1970s, which was the product of opportunistic modish ideol ogies. What is needed today is that facts about schizophrenia, its pro gnosis and treatability are presented to both patients and relatives - in order to replace anxiety with knowledge and to lay the basis for m andate and mutual trust. We need professionalism to be realistic about the rehabilitation goals concerning the effect of the disease on judg ement, will and insight. Research today shows that psychotherapy and f amily therapy are in no way in contradiction to pharmacological treatm ent, but are mostly complements of each other. The best way to improve professionality is to focus on the interaction between biological vul nerability and psychosocial stress and in this article further example s from the stress vulnerability model are presented.