Therapeutic Alliance and its Role in Treatment of Schizophrenia

Abstract

The inadequate level of compliance with medication is one of the most important problems is schizophrenia treatment. In psychotic patients’ psychiatrists deal with usual and special (personality features, not adaptive coping, etc.) causes of nonadherence. Therapeutic alliance is a new perspective method to improve compliance. This based on analysis of patient’s individual hopes, fears, and expectations, special technics of communication, repetitive assessments of patientphysician cooperation. Getting of the therapeutic alliance provides additional reduction of schizophrenia symptoms, lower rates of relapse and hospitalization, and also improvements in social functioning. Long-acting intramuscular second generation antipsychotics are probably optimal drugs for longterm treatment of schizophrenia due to their pharmacokinetics and provide strong background to achievement of therapeutic alliance.