Information to schizophrenic patient and his family

Providing information for patients, is a fundamental principle of medical ethics. When considering schizophrenia, two major obstacles appear: one is denial of illness, the second is the stigmatising effect of the term itself. The availability of new active medications has introduced major changes in the treatment of schizophrenia, with patients benefitting from rehabilitation programme sin the community it is therefore necessary to try and modify the stigmatising image of this mental illness. Information is a necessary part of the therapeutic process, in order to improve treatment observance and allow control of symptoms by the patient himself. Major ethical and therapeutic issues are discussed.