What therapy types are proved to be effective for people with psycosis? In remission or in relapse?
Currently there is a serious lack of therapies specifically targeted at psychosis and proven to be beneficial, unfortunately. This is why I’d like to go into research and development of such things in the future. CBT for psychosis is one existing targeted therapy that has shown promising results however. For the most part the psych field just relies on antipsychotics despite medication and therapy together showing the best rates of recovery.
Ppl with severe SZ cannot interact or be motivated in CBT therapy. They don’t benefit at all from CBT. Also therapy is very expensive, its 200-250$ a session here in Canada and its not covered by gov insurance, only by expensive private insurance. That’s why meds are more important and more used.
I thought Canada had amazing health insurance…
Not really, new US meds take 5-10 years to reach Canada and sometimes they don’t at all.
I can’t complain bcz my psychiatrist is free and meds are cheap.
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This is not ordinary CBT this is CBT for psychosis. (CBTp) Its results have been backed by research and it has been shown to benefit treatment when used in conjunction with medication.
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What I am saying is that only slightly SZs patients will benefit from it. Its not practical. You need motivation, cognitive abilities and money to benefit from CBTp. I am abarely motivated to see my psychiatrist, so seeing a psychologist and wasting tons of money is not for me.
I pretty much think that psychiatrists know more than psychologists about SZ and they help much more. CBT will never replace meds or even be close in effectiveness.
For me, I was told therapy was 60% while meds were 40%, maybe even higher. I did years of therapy. I’ve heard mixed things, but overall it helped. I prefer DBT a ton more. It also depends on the professionals.
CBT is free in my state. Weird that you can’t find it for free in a country with universal healthcare.
Anyways, CBT is amazingly beneficial, but as @Aziz says, you have to be willing to do the homework. If you aren’t going to bother trying, it will be a waste of time. But if you put in the effort, it can do amazing things.
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What’s DBT? 
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Yea last time a psychologist wanted 250$ for a 45min session, its not refundable. Here in Canada only doctors are free. Even nutritionists are not free. You need private insurance or work/study insurance to have a discount but sadly I can’t work or study.
Well psychiatrists have a lot more schooling than psychologists so you probably are not wrong there. I never said therapy should replace medication, or that it was better than medication. I said that when used with medication, it results in better outcomes for patients.
In my opinion until a psychotic person is stabilized on medication therapy is useless. But once their symptoms are under control and they have lucidity back, therapy can help improve medication adherence, help a person recognize triggers and patterns in their life that perpetuate their psychosis, how to better avoid getting into episodes and how to cope if it can’t be avoided.
It is true that if you don’t have insurance therapy is pretty much out of the question unfortunately. But then again, a lot of psych meds are really expensive too.
For people who are not able to leave their homes to attend therapy for whatever reason teletherapy (over phone) is available.
Of course, there are a very very limited number of therapists who specialize in psychotic disorders to begin with. And a looot of therapists who shouldn’t even be therapists at all in my opinion. I want to be able to provide specialized therapy for others with psychosis eventually.
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CBT for psychosis is the one with the most research supporting it, but there’s no reason to assume that many other forms of therapy are not equally effective. The effect sizes of therapy for psychosis are not small. Therapy is helpful when you have sz. Also, psychoeducative groups are pretty much a necessary component of any adequate kind of treatment for schizophrenia. The effect sizes are, again, far from small, even when compared to medication. But it is not recommended to treat sz with therapy alone. Medication can even be necessary for therapy to have any effect.
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Luckily meds are very cheap here in Canada. The government pays 75%. I only pay 18-50$Canadian for 1 month supply for SZ meds. My other meds are much cheaper (high bp and cholesterol), 4-10$ for 1 month.
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The US sucks. My antipsychotic is 800 dollars without insurance. And I’m going to be kicked off my parents insurance by the govt soon.
They have discount cards. Don’t you work as a nurse? You should have a good career right?
I’m on private and medi-cal. All my stuff is free but I’m tired of all the delays, paperwork, and hoops.
Everything is free for me. College is cheap too.
USA does not suck.
I get the best treatments. One of my meds is 3k and I pay 15 dollars. It can be free though.
We have the best meds too. First dibs.
CBT was very beneficial for me when I was sick.
I still use a lot of the coping skills I learned now.
I’ve had good therapists and bad therapists,
I really think that’s what makes the difference and sometimes it takes a while to tell.
The good thing about the US vs Canada is that the US are the 1st to get new meds. New meds take 5-10 years to reach Canada and sometimes they don’t reach at all.
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