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.