Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy Programs for Schizophrenia: Results of a Short-Term Randomized Control Trial

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of two different cognitive-behavioural therapy programs in patients with schizophrenia and clarify which techniques are more effective on psychotic symptoms. With this purpose, 39 schizophrenia outpatients—assessed by independent assessors using Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and by researchers using Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scales-were randomly assigned to routine care (RC), RC plus COPE-CBT or RC plus CBT groups. The repeated measures ANOVA results show that there was a significant reduction in the severity and frequency of hallucinations in CBT group and delusions in COPE-CBT group. Both CBT programs were found to be superior to RC group on some measures at post-treatment, as well as 3 months follow-up.