Recovery-oriented cognitive therapy (CT-R)—a therapeutic approach that emphasizes a patient’s personal treatment goals—can lead to enduring improvements in low-functioning individuals with schizophrenia, reports a study published today in Psychiatric Services in Advance.
Paul M. Grant, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues randomly assigned 60 adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder to 18 months of CT-R plus standard treatment or standard treatment alone. Standard treatment consisted minimally of antipsychotic medication, but most in this group received some additional services from the local community mental health center. Researchers who were blind to the treatment groups evaluated the study participants at the start of the trial and again 6, 12, 18, and 24 months later.
The researchers found that even though CT-R ended at 18 months, global functioning in the CT-R group remained superior to that in the standard treatment group at 24 months. The CT-R group also showed lower scores for negative symptoms (avolition and apathy) and for positive symptoms compared with participants receiving standard treatment.
I know that starting school a year after I was put on ap’s would help. In the hospital the art therapist had us do a 5 year goal sheet. My goal was to graduate. I’m still working on it.
I speak as someone who is on an antipsychotic depot but no longer has a sz-sz/a dx.
One of the ongoing difficulties across diagnostic changes has been the difficulty in thinking of and pursuing goals.
The nearest I have come is an ultimately futile attempt to lose weight. Sometimes I think it can be what may transpire from successfully achieving a goal that may be challenging.
For example if I had lost weight sufficiently it would have meant knowing how and when to buy new clothes. Something I am not very good at. I know there are belts but even knowing what size belt to buy would have been problematic for me. Then there is the task of measuring yourself to see what size trousers etc you may be needing. Again something that would have been problematic for me.
Do you buy new clothes for each stage of getting to your target weight or do you wait till reaching your target weight to splash out on new clothes?
If the former I could have seen myself ending up with a heap of clothes and nowhere to put them!
My example is perhaps a trivial one but it stresses that there are consequences of reaching goals that also have to be faced. Achieving a goal brings about a fresh set of challenges.