Severely impaired schizophrenics enter dynamic cycle of recovery after cognitive therapy

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Public release date: 3-Oct-2011
Contact: Kim Menard
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Severely impaired schizophrenics enter dynamic cycle of recovery after cognitive therapy
Intervention dramatically improves quality of life in lowest-functioning patients

PHILADELPHIA - Cognitive therapy has dynamically improved the most neurologically impaired, poorly functioning schizophrenic patients. For the first time, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that a psychosocial treatment can significantly improve daily functioning and quality of life in the lowest-functioning cases of schizophrenia. The study appears in the October 3 edition of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Mental health professionals often give up on the lowest-functioning cases of schizophrenia and may say that they are not capable of improving," said Paul Grant, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor in Psychiatry at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. "Our results suggest that cognitive therapy can improve quality of life, reduce symptoms, and promote recovery in these patients. This intervention can help these patients improve to the point where they may be able to move up to the next level in psychosocial functioning - i.e. going from being unemployed to volunteering part-time; not being in school to enrolling in night classes; not socializing to having a weekly social contact and making a friend or two."

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