Effect of comprehensive intervention on patients with chronic schizophrenia in community

Objective To evaluate the effect of comprehensive intervention on patients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods A group of 80 patients with chronic schizophrenia as rehabilitation group received comprehensive intervention for one year, and another 80 patients as control group(community group) using 1:1 matching method accepted standard intervention. Both groups were assessed with the social disability community of cases screening schedule (SDSS), the brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS), family burden talks scale (FIS), the insight and treatment attitude questionnaire (ITAQ) before intervention, and 6 and 12 months after intervention. Comparison was made in recurrence hospitalization rate within one year between the two groups. Results The changes of the scales of SDSS, BPRS, FIS, and ITAQ in rehabilitation group were significantly lower than those in control groups at the time of 6 months and 12 months after the intervention (P<0.01). The recurrence hospitalization rate of intervention group was 1.25%, whereas that of the control group was 15.00% (P<0.01). Conclusion To carry out the comprehensive intervention for patients with chronic schizophrenia in the community can significantly mitigate its social disability, improve mental symptoms, alleviate the burden of family care, raise insight and treatment compliance, and reduce the relapse rate of hospitalization.