Maintenance treatment of schizophrenia with risperidone or haloperidol: 2-year outcomes.

Objective: Most controlled studies comparing second-generation and conventional antipsychotics have focused on the acute treatment of schizophrenia. The authors compared symptom outcomes, side effects, and social adjustment in stable schizophrenia outpatients who received 2 years of maintenance treatment with risperidone or haloperidol.

Method: This was a 2-year, randomized, double-blind comparison of 6 mg of risperidone versus haloperidol in 63 patients with stabilized DSM-IV schizophrenia.

In vivo amplified skills training: promoting generalization of independent living skills for clients with schizophrenia.

In Vivo Amplified Skills Training, IVAST, functions to bridge the gap between clinic-based skills training and use of social and independent living skills in everyday life for persons with schizophrenia and other serious and persistent mental illness. IVAST utilizes a specialist case manager who provides individualized, community-based teaching using behavioral techniques to promote clients' use of skills that were learned in classroom group sessions. The IVAST trainer also liaises with the client's psychiatrist and other clinic-based staff, family members, and community agencies to create opportunities, encouragement and reinforcement for the client's independent use of skills in the community.

Supplementing clinic-based skills training with manual-based community support sessions: effects on social adjustment of patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: Although skills training is a validated psychosocial treatment for schizophrenia, generalization of the skills to everyday life has not been optimal. This study evaluated a behaviorally oriented method of augmenting clinic-based skills training in the community with the aim of improving opportunities, encouragement, and reinforcement for outpatients to use their skills in their natural environment.

Method: Sixty-three individuals with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to 60 weeks of clinic-based skills training alone or of clinic-based skills training supplemented with manual-based generalization sessions in the community.