The National Danish Schizophrenia Project

A prospective, longitudinal, multi-centre investigation (16 centres), including 562 patients, consecutively referred during two years, with a first-episode psychosis of ICD-10, F-2 type. Patients were treated with: 1) 'Supportive psychodynamic psychotherapy as a supplement to treatment as usual', 2) an 'Integrated, assertive, psychosocial and educational treatment programme', and 3) 'Treatment as usual'.

The study is a prospective, comparative, longitudinal study with an intervention period of a minimum of two years and a registration of data at baseline and 1, 2 and 5 years after inclusion. Three sub-cohorts with different treatment modalities were designed: Treatment1: 119 patients were, in addition to TaU, offered SPP, i.e. a scheduled manualised supportive individual psychotherapy (1 session of 45 min. per week, for a period of 1-3 years) and/or group psychotherapy (1 session of 60 min. per week for a period of 1-3 years). Anti-psychotic medication was given in doses based on individual needs; Treatment 2: 139 patients were offered IT, i.e. a scheduled, two-year long programme consisting of assertive community treatment, psycho-educational multi-family treatment (a.m. McFarlane, consisting of 4-6 families including the patients, meeting 1½ hour every second week for 1½ year), social skills training (concerning medication, self-management, coping with symptoms, conversational skills, problem and conflict solving skills), and antipsychotic medication (low dose strategy). This project, OPUS, has been described in detail elsewhere