Psychosocial treatments in schizophrenia - A review of the past 20 years

Pharmacotherapy can improve some of the symptoms of schizophrenia but has l imited effect on the social impairments that characterize the disorder and limit functioning and quality of Life. Through computerized literature sear ches and bibliographies of published reports we identified peer reviewed st udies of group, family, and individual therapy with schizophrenia and schiz oaffective disorder patients. We identified 70 studies: 26 on group therapy , 18 on family therapy, and 11 on individual therapy. Additionally, treatme nt models were compared in 4 studies and combined in 11 others. Controls we re included in 61 and all studies included medication. Benefits in symptoms as well as social and vocational functioning were associated with psychoso cial treatments. Family therapy demonstrated the most promising findings an d traditional social skills treatment yielded the least robust results. Adj unctive psychosocial treatments augment the benefits of pharmacotherapy and enhance functioning in psychotic disorders. Although these positive result s have led to increased enthusiasm about psychosocial treatments for schizo phrenia, questions remain about comparative benefits of specific treatment methods and additional benefits of multiple treatments.