BMJ 1996;313:505-506 (31 August)

Editorials

Family interventions in schizophrenia

An effective but underused treatment

The systematic review by Mari and Streiner of family interventions for people with schizophrenia,1 abstracted in a recent issue of Evidence-Based Medicine,2 confirms what mental health researchers have suspected for some time3--that such interventions reduce relapse rates, rehospitalisation, and costs of treatment and also increase compliance with medication. This is good news for schizophrenia sufferers, their families, and others involved with their care, because family interventions promise an effective strategy in schizophrenia that complements other interventions such as antipsychotic medication.4 Despite this, acceptance of the treatment into clinical services has been slow.5

Mari and Streiner included 12 randomised controlled trials of family interventions in their review, selected after systematic search of the research literature by predetermined methodological criteria. The interventions all offered family psy-choeducation and support, and most included some form of skills based training for relatives, although the theoretical orientation of these programmes . . . [Full text of this article]


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • TURKINGTON, D., KINGDON, D., CHADWICK, P. (2003). Cognitive-behavioural therapy for schizophrenia: filling the therapeutic vacuum. Br. J. Psychiatry 183: 98-99 [Full text]  
  • Torrey, W. C., Drake, R. E., Dixon, L., Burns, B. J., Flynn, L., Rush, A. J., Clark, R. E., Klatzker, D. (2001). Implementing Evidence-Based Practices for Persons With Severe Mental Illnesses. Psychiatr. Serv. 52: 45-50 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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