Hallucination focused integrative treatment improves quality of life in schizophrenia patients

OBJECTIVE: Psychosocial treatment seems to be effective in the management of schizophrenia, although less in the area of quality of life and social functioning. To study the effectiveness of a hallucination focused integrated treatment with cognitive-behaviour therapy and coping training among schizophrenia patients suffering from 'hearing voices'. METHOD: In a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 31 patients in the integrated treatment condition and 32 patients in the routine care condition, quality of life was assessed with the self-report questionnaire of the WHO (Bref), and social role functioning with an interviewer based schedule, at entry and 9 (post-treatment) and 18 months later. RESULTS: Follow-up data suggest a significant improvement of quality of life and in particular in social role functioning (effect size 0.64) in favour of the integrated treatment. CONCLUSION: The integrated treatment seems to be effective in reducing overall disability levels and number of patients with serious disabilities.