Cognitive-Behavioral Group Treatment for Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders- A Systematic Review

Objective: This study aims to revise empirical studies that were used to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group treatment programs in the treatment for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Method: Articles in English that were published between the years of 1980 and 2011 (july) have been searched in the: PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and MEDLINE databases by using "(1) psychosis and cognitive treatment (2) schizophrenia and cognitive treatment, (3) schizophrenia and cognitive therapy, (4) psychosis and cognitive therapy, (5) schizophrenia and cognitive intervention (6), psychosis and cognitive intervention, (7) hallucination and cognitive therapy, (8) hallucination and cognitive treatment, (9) hallucination and cognitive intervention" keywords. The articles that were gathered by the search have been read and the ones that were not therapy effectiveness studies, group therapies were eliminated. Results: The remaining 42 studies that were in conformance with the search criteria were introduced in the context of method (properties of population, measures, randomization, results, follow-up, etc.) and therapy characteristics (number of sessions, frequency of sessions, number of therapists and members, etc.). Conclusion: It can be seen that the cognitive behavioral therapies plus standard treatment that are applied to people who have schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are effective in decreasing the symptoms of the disorders (positive and negative symptoms etc.) and/or the problems that accompany the disorder (anxiety, hopelessness etc.).