Study backs new approach, added costs for treating schizophrenia

New York

A NEW approach to treating early schizophrenia, which includes family counselling, results in improvements in quality of life that make it worth the added expense, researchers reported on Monday.

The study, published by the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, is the first rigorous cost analysis of a federally backed treatment programme that more than a dozen states have begun trying. In contrast to traditional outpatient care, which generally provides only services covered by insurance, such as drugs and some psychotherapy, the new programme offers other forms of support, such as help with jobs and school, as well as family counselling.

The programme also tries to include the patients - people struggling with a first psychotic "break" from reality, most of them in their late teens and 20s - as e…