Psychosocial intervention in schizophrenia

Abstract

Occupational therapy as a psychosocial approach based on cognitive rehabilitation among clients with schizophrenia is discussed in this chapter. For these clients it is demonstrated that psychopharmacologic treatment combined with psychosocial interventions is more effective than solely psychopharmacologic treatment. This strategy improves cognitive aspects and social functioning and consequently counteracts the deterioration caused by the illness (Huxley et al., 2000). There is a clear evidence that clients with schizophrenia have an intensive impairment of their executive functions (Morrice and Delahunty, 1996; Velligan and Bow-Thomas, 1999; Wykes et al., 1999). This deficit is defined as the negative syndrome of schizophrenia (Crow, 1980) and, in treatment-resistant schizophrenia, the syndrome exhibits great intensity. Thus, occupational therapy is a complementary treatment, which enables improvement in clients' executive functions. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009.