Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 June 2009
Six patients meeting DSM III criteria for schizophrenia, residual phase who lived in community hostels underwent social skills training. The training programme utilized was “Stacking the Deck” developed by Foxx et al. which involves a structured board game incorporating modelling, behaviour and feedback. A multiple baseline across subject design was used to assess acquisition of targeted social behaviours in the training settings. Generalization of skills to a community setting was assessed by a structured interaction in the patients' homes at pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow-up. All subjects improved their social skills in the training setting, the improvement showed partial but weak generalization to the community setting, with some gains maintained to a three-month follow-up. Pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow-up measures of general social skills and psychiatric status indicated improvements for some of the subjects. The results suggest this approach has promise for achieving clinically significant change with chronic schizophrenic patients, but that strategies to enhance generalization of training effects are needed.
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