Schizophrenia social skills training

Hoggarty, G.E., Anderson, C.M., Reiss, D.J., Kornblith, S.J., Green-wald, D.P., Javna, C.D., and Madonia, M.J. (1986) Family psychoeducation, social skills training and maintenance chemotherapy in the aftercare treatment of schizophrenia. I. One-year effects of a controlled study on relapse and expressed emotions. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43 633-642. 

An important implication of this observation is the suggestion that early intervention in schizophrenia could substantially alter the natural course of the illness. To investigate this idea, early-intervention projects have been developed. In one, primary physicians were trained to recognize the early symptoms of a mental disorder and to arrange consultation with an intervention team who assessed and treated the disorder. If early symptoms were present, the functional psychotic disorder was treated with low doses of the appropriate medication, often for a relatively short period of time (i.e., several weeks), and then tapered when symptoms abated while psychosocial intervention was continued. In some patients, symptoms returned and medication was reinstituted. The psychosocial program, social skills training, and social casework were continued for some time, and all patients were monitored for at least 2 years. Epidemiological data established that over the lifetime of this project, 7.5 new cases would be expected for 100,000 patients (227, 228). 

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