Sustaining full recovery in schizophrenia after 15 years: does resilience matter?

The main purpose of this study was to follow up a group of persons who, fifteen years ago were considered to be fully recovered from schizophrenia, in order to examine how many have sustained their recovery and to investigate the role of resilience in recovery. A semi-structured interview was designed for this 15-year follow-up study based on previous research related to the course and prognosis of schizophrenia. In addition to the interview, measures of psychosocial functioning and the degree of positive and negative symptoms were used. Remission and recovery were evaluated by consensus-based criteria. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was chosen to assess resilience. The results show a significant correlation between resilience and present psychosocial functioning. There is also a significant difference between fully recovered subjects and those in remission regarding their resilience score. These results show that the majority of the subjects had maintained their recovery, and that subjects who are still fully recovered have not used medication for seventeen years and are more resilient. Thus, a sustained, full recovery without medication seems possible for a subgroup of schizophrenia patients characterized by high resilience.