NICE guidance for the treatment of schizophrenia

Created: 2009-03-24 18:50:03

Comment from Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of SANE, on the NICE guidance for the treatment of schizophrenia:

"While the holistic approach endorsed by the NICE guidance is uncontroversial, it reveals how little fundamental progress has been made in new treatments for schizophrenia.

"Art has been a known therapy for decades and SANE, which has been running an arts grant scheme for many years, welcomes the recognition of its value in the lives of those living with long-term mental illness. It is also encouraging that there is proper recognition of the key role that families and others caring for someone with schizophrenia play, and that their needs should be taken into account.

"The worry is that these and other recommendations will be of limited value while we have a shortage of in and out-patient treatment, not enough skilled therapists and mental health services working under the continuing pressure of closures and cutbacks. Unless schizophrenia is given the same priority as depression and other conditions, those suffering from it will remain the most disenfranchised and under-treated group of patients in the country."

Ends