O tempora, O mores: directions in research on the psychotherapeutic treatment of schizophrenia.

This article places an appreciation of the Boston Study of the Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia in a historical context. It discusses some of the major advances in research methodology during the last decade which have brought about a shift in approach to the study of the psychosocial treatment of schizophrenic patients. These advances include the necessity for "combined" treatments, recognition of the complexity of pharmacological treatments, the development of methods for "standardizing" psychotherapeutic treatments, and the specification of a number of other variables likely to account for variance in treatment outcome.