Sponsored Symposium (SpS) |
SpS4-1 Consider the therapeutic goals: Recovery John M. Kane
The concept of recovery is a critical one in the treatment of schizophrenia. Too often in the past the focus has been largely on symptom control. What is most important to patients (and families) are quality of life and functional capacity. The concept of recovery is intended to include not only symptom remission, but role functioning (ability to work, attend school, or to be a homemaker), activities of daily living (taking a shower, doing the laundry, managing money) and socialization with people outside of the immediate family on a regular basis. When criteria such as these were applied to a population of first episode patients attending our research clinic and followed for five years, only 14% of patients were able to achieve these outcomes concurrently and sustained for two years (Robinson et al Am J Psych 2004). A recent systematic review and meta-analysis (Jaaskelainen et al Schiz Bull 2013) of multiple studies of recovery in schizophrenia conducted over the last several decades found only 1 in 7 patients met criteria for that outcome.
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