Inpatient group therapy of patients with schizophrenia.

The treatment of psychoses, particularly of schizophrenics, occupies a special place within the evolution of psychiatry and psychotherapy. Group therapy has come to play an important role in the treatment of psychotic disorder. It is known that the best results of the treatment are achieved with combination of antipsychotic medications, psychotherapeutic treatment, family therapy, and a variety of social and rehabilitative interventions. The purpose of this lecture is to demonstrate inpatient and outpatient group psychotherapy of schizophrenic in small therapeutic groups, employed by group psychotherapists with different theoretical orientations. Certain characteristics of psychodynamics of these small groups are discussed. In spite of lengthy experience in the application of group psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients, there are few studies regarding this issue. This appears to be more due to the vagueness of the concept of psychoses than to clinical practice. There are a lot of different therapeutic approaches, which make the comparison difficult in terms of their efficiency in treatment of psychotic patients. Generally, the following three conditions must be met in group psychotherapy: The group primarily relies on verbal communication; The individual group member is the object of the treatment; The group itself is the main therapeutic factor.