03.01.14
Schizophrenia treatment needs to be reconsidered
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has little impact on patients with schizophrenia, a new international study shows.
The therapy is currently recommended for all patients with the condition and is endorsed by NICE.
But a paper published online in the British Journal of Psychiatry shows that CBT only has a small therapeutic effect on schizophrenic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. Even this disappeared when blind testing was taken into account.
Keith Laws, professor of cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Hertfordshire said: “This study is a new meta-analysis of CBT in the treatment of schizophrenia. It is the most comprehensive study of its effect on symptoms ever undertaken – covering 50 randomised controlled trials published over the last twenty years.
“We even translated papers from foreign languages, such as Chinese – so our study covers everything worthy of examination.
“With this evidence, the current government policy which mandates this treatment for all patients with schizophrenia in England and Wales needs to be reconsidered.”
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