OBJECTIVE: To determine whether schizophrenic outpatients receiving low-doseneuroleptic therapy could learn and retain complex information and skills related to self-management of their illness, a novel technique of teaching, using cognitive and behavioral methods, was designed to compensate for the patients' learning disabilities. METHOD: The subjects were 41 patients with DSM-III-R schizophrenia who were receiving constant maintenance neuroleptic drug therapy. They were randomly assigned to structured, modularized skills training or to supportive group psychotherapy. RESULTS: The patients who received skills training made significant gains in each of the areas taught, while those participating in group therapy did not. The skills learned during training were retained without significant erosion over a 1-year follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of modularized teaching of illness self-management skills to schizophrenic patients appears to be largely independent of baseline psychology and symptom improvement. Such an approach is useful for overcoming or compensating for the enduring cognitive and information processing deficits commonly found in schizophrenia.
RCT Entities:
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether schizophrenic outpatients receiving low-dose neuroleptic therapy could learn and retain complex information and skills related to self-management of their illness, a novel technique of teaching, using cognitive and behavioral methods, was designed to compensate for the patients' learning disabilities. METHOD: The subjects were 41 patients with DSM-III-R schizophrenia who were receiving constant maintenance neuroleptic drug therapy. They were randomly assigned to structured, modularized skills training or to supportive group psychotherapy. RESULTS: The patients who received skills training made significant gains in each of the areas taught, while those participating in group therapy did not. The skills learned during training were retained without significant erosion over a 1-year follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of modularized teaching of illness self-management skills to schizophrenicpatients appears to be largely independent of baseline psychology and symptom improvement. Such an approach is useful for overcoming or compensating for the enduring cognitive and information processing deficits commonly found in schizophrenia.
Authors: Lisa B Dixon; Faith Dickerson; Alan S Bellack; Melanie Bennett; Dwight Dickinson; Richard W Goldberg; Anthony Lehman; Wendy N Tenhula; Christine Calmes; Rebecca M Pasillas; Jason Peer; Julie Kreyenbuhl Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2009-12-02 Impact factor: 9.306
Authors: Tatiana L Taylor; Helen Killaspy; Christine Wright; Penny Turton; Sarah White; Thomas W Kallert; Mirjam Schuster; Jorge A Cervilla; Paulette Brangier; Jiri Raboch; Lucie Kalisová; Georgi Onchev; Hristo Dimitrov; Roberto Mezzina; Kinou Wolf; Durk Wiersma; Ellen Visser; Andrzej Kiejna; Patryk Piotrowski; Dimitri Ploumpidis; Fragiskos Gonidakis; José Caldas-de-Almeida; Graça Cardoso; Michael B King Journal: BMC Psychiatry Date: 2009-09-07 Impact factor: 3.630