The Efficacy of Combination of Psychosocial Interventions and Pharmacotherapeutic Intervention compared to Standard Care in Patients age 16-40 Diagnosed with Schizophrenia When Looking at Functional Capacity

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a complex mental illness that arises from a combination of genetic factors, brain chemistry, substance use and environmental factors that affects the way a person behaves, thinks, and perceives. Schizophrenia has no cure, but it has several options for treatment including antipsychotic medications, psychotherapy, and education. Medication is frequently prescribed, and there is little evidence of how often psychotherapy is practiced to properly treat negative symptoms. The combination of these symptoms can have an impact on the functional capacity of an individual; this means that they may have less of an ability to proceed in a typical manner in social situations, carry out and continue having a career and social life, as well as manage the stress and residual symptoms disrupting their life or their families’ lives. Methods: A literature search was done in PubMed, Academic Search Ultimate, and Google Scholar in November 2019. A total of seven randomized controlled articles were chosen based on sample size, treatment type, length of intervention, study design, and results. Results: The literature review revealed that there is significant improvement. All the studies showed positive results using psychosocial therapy. Each study had a least one significant result providing evidence to treat schizophrenia using this type of intervention to provide a higher quality of life. Discussion: Most of the studies found psychosocial therapy to be beneficial for quality of life. Outcome measures were varied among the studies, with Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Wing Negative Symptom Scale (WNSS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and Global Assessment of Functioning Scale being the most commonly used. The use of seven unique forms of psychosocial therapy makes it difficult to translate into real world clinical changes. Conclusion: Even though the studies were statistically significant, with the current amount of research and data, there is not enough evidence to change clinical practice to provide a higher quality of life and healthier lifestyle. More inclusive studies must be done looking at all the approaches that were reviewed here to provide a more rounded approach to treatment instead of the seven unique interventions. For future studies, recommendations include increasing the sample size, including a more diverse demographic of individuals, and using a multicenter study with a double-blind randomized clinical trial