Results of Family-orientated Therapy with Hospitalized Schizophrenics

Abstract

Twenty male and 22 female schizophrenics were treated by conjoint family and milieu therapy in two mental hospitals with reduced use of tranquillizers. No individual psychotherapy was given. None of the so-called shock treatments was used, nor was leucotomy. All patients were discharged within one year of admission. The average length of stay was three months. Seventeen per cent. were readmitted within a year of discharge. Seventy per cent. of the others were sufficiently well adjusted socially to be able to earn their living for the whole of the year after discharge. These results are the first to be reported on the outcome of purely family and milieu therapy with schizophrenics, and they appear to us to establish at least a prima facie case for radical revision of the therapeutic strategy employed in most psychiatric units in relation to the schizophrenic and his family. This revision is in line with current developments in social psychiatry in this country. © 1965, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.