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
