Towards a more humanistic psychiatry: Development of need‐adapted treatment of schizophrenia group psychoses

Abstract

The group of schizophrenic psychoses is clinically and prognostically very heterogeneous. Contradictory views about etiology have had a major negative effect of the development of treatment, especially psychotherapeutic methods. There is an obvious need for more integrated approaches. We should study the development and precipitating factors of every person’s psychosis individually and plan his/her treatment on this knowledge.

This has been done in the need‐adapted treatment of schizophrenia group psychoses, developed gradually by the author and his co‐workers in Finland over 40 years ago. Our aim is a comprehensive and psychotherapeutically oriented treatment approach for public psychiatric health care. A crucial step forward was the initiation of treatment with therapy meetings, including the treatment team, the patient, and his/her family members (or sometimes other persons close to him).

During the last few decades, several projects applying the need‐adapted model have been developed. The author describes the experiences and results of some projects and also deals with the use of neuroleptic drugs in connection with the need‐adaptive orientation.

Keywords:

• early intervention
• family therapy
• integrative approaches
• psychodynamic psychotherapy
• schizophrenia
• treatment planning

Notes

1. This review is based on the author’s address connected with the inaugural WPA Philippe Pinel Prize for Psychiatry for the Person, in the XIV WPA Congress in Prague, September 2008.