Evaluation of the combination of psychosocial and pharmacological treatment in schizophrenic patients

The present treatment of schizophrenia should initially focus on bringing psychotic symptoms under control with the use of antipsychotic medication, but it also should include the psychosocial management of the illness, with the implementation of psychosocial treatment. The purpose of the present study is to describe the results of the comparison of two groups (experimental and control) of schizophrenic out-patients of The National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente in Mexico City. The experimental group received a combination of psychosocial and pharmacological treatment, while the control group received the pharmacological treatment alone. A quasi-experimental design which included the two groups under study, experimental (n=25) and control group (n=22), was used. Both groups were assessed at the beginning and at the end of a one-year interventions considering variables such as: symptomatology, psychosocial functioning, global functioning, compliance with antipsychotic medication, relapses, rehospitalizations, therapeutic non-compliance, and adherence. Experimental patients, in comparison with control patients, improved their symptomatology, psychosocial functioning and global functioning considerably. They also presented the following: lower relapse frequency - 12% versus 31,8% of the controls as well as low rehospitalizacion rate - 0% versus 13.6% of the control patients, higher antipsychotic medication compliance (90%) when compared with patients under the control condition (80%), a reduced rate of therapeutic non-compliace (19.3%) and a higher degree of adherence (80.7%). On the other hand, control patients remained stabilized in their symptomatology, but did not improved in any of the psychosocial variables. The results show that the combination of psychosocial and pharmacological therapy is a more effective form of treatment in comparison with the other approach of pharmacotherapy alone. It may be concluded that there is sound evidence that indicates that combined psychosocial and pharmacological therapy combined report beneficial effects for the patients; therefore, it should be considered as an important therapeutic alternative in the treatment of schizophrenic patients.