Recovery-Related Brief Interventions for Psychosis

Abstract

This chapter will examine these themes in relation to psychosis and some of the new ideas which focus on the importance of supporting 'recovery.' It has long been established that for people with psychosis, their symptomatic course and their social outcomes can be heterogeneous and often not closely correlated with one another. It is also the case that while antipsychotic medications are effective in controlling symptoms in the acute phase for most people, they are not effective in a substantial minority of cases. On the other hand, effective psychosocial interventions have been relatively neglected in research and service delivery (see Chap. 1). Doubts have also been raised recently regarding the long-term use of antipsychotics since there is preliminary evidence that maintenance medication may lead to worse social outcomes in young people with remitted psychosis, despite a more benign symptomatic course. In either case, one cannot assume that the most effective way lo improve long-term outcomes for people with psychosis is simply through the administration of symptom-oriented treatments - medical or psychological. Instead, one needs to look at how lo combine traditional treatments with more social models of care in order to improve outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)