Psychosocial intervention in schizophrenia

Abstract

Psychological treatments aimed at symptoms or behaviours that impede recovery now have a relatively strong database but it is not clear which treatments are more effective and when they should be applied. For large-scale roll out we need to consider which are the most helpful and cost-effective at which stage of the illness and to which individuals. This requires knowledge of how service users ascribe value to different outcomes and treatments as well as which individuals are likely to benefit the most from different treatments to produce a coherent mental health recovery programme. Tailoring treatment requires an understanding of adherence requirements as well as therapeutic interactions to explain how therapy fits with the service users’ personal goals. Not all information for making these clinical decisions is embedded in any database so the burden on research is to provide enough information to signal to health professionals the best course of action. More research on dissemination of treatment approaches as well as training and supervision requirements is needed in the form of dissemination science if patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia are to receive the best intervention programme.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.