Improving clinical symptoms, functioning, and quality of life in chronic schizophrenia with an integrated psychological therapy (IPT) plus emotional management training (EMT): A controlled clinical trial.

This paper describes the results of testing a multi-component psychological therapy that includes integrated psychological therapy (IPT), together with an adaptation of emotional management therapy (EMT), versus treatment as usual (TAU), delivered in a community mental health setting for individual with chronic schizophrenia. We investigated the effectiveness of a psychological intervention on clinical symptoms, cognitive and social functioning, as well as the feasibility of treatment and its acceptance. 77 outpatients were recruited, 42 in the experimental group, who were treated with IPT + EMT, and 35 participants in control condition (TAU), both during 8 months. The subjects of both groups were assessed pre and postreatment. Treatment attendance was 98% in experimental group and none of patients required hospital admission during therapy, meanwhile 11 patients from the TAU group withdrew and 3 were hospitalized during therapy. After therapy, patients in the experimental group compared to TAU, reduced clinical symptoms and improved cognitive functioning and quality of life. Psychological therapy seems to be a feasible intervention even in the chronic stages of the disease.