The Establishment of the Early Intervention Program for Patients With Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, which has a prodromal phase of 1-2 years prior to the onset of the illness. During the prodromal phase, patients might show maladaptation and/or poor social functioning. However, these early symptom of schizophrenia might be overlooked by patients and their families. At that period, patients might strive to improve their social interactions and social functioning. However, the efforts might further create their stress level on everyday life, which can actually accelerate the illness onset of schizophrenia. In other words, the efforts would worsen the pathophysiologic changes in the brain, which can result in the positive symptoms of schizophrenia.

Previous researches found that the critical period for treatment of schizophrenia is the early phase of illness onset, especially the first two or three years. Delay treatment would worsen the illness. To this extent, early treatment would bring to a better prognosis as well as minimize the costs of individuals, families and society. In other words, early interventions not only can prevent relapse, it also can benefit patients' psychosocial adjustments. However, researches found that the average duration of untreated psychosis is 25.2 months in Taiwan, which indicates the phenomena of delay treatment and this trend might result in missing the critical treatment period.

This is a two years study aiming to establish an early intervention program for patients with schizophrenia. In the first year, it aims to understand the phenomena of psychiatric care services utilization for patients with schizophrenia, special emphasis will be on the delay treatment and pluralistic health seeking process. In the second year, it aims to establish an early intervention program. The results of this research would contribute to in-service trainings, service providing, and policy making of psychiatric services.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Schizophrenia

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment: 20

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Ping-Chuan Hsiung, Ph.D; Phone Number: 8430 02-23123456

Study Locations

• Taiwan
  • Taipei, Taiwan, 106
    • Recruiting
    • Ping-Chuan,Hsiung
    • Contact: Ping-Chuan Hsiung, Ph.D; Phone Number: 8430 02-23123456

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 1 second and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with schizophrenia
• capable to express in Chinese
• willing to cooperate with

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients with schizophrenia but not willing to cooperate with

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital
• Collaborators: Department of Health, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan)
• Investigators: Study Chair: Ping-Chuan Hsiung, Ph.D, Department of Nursing, National Taiwan University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2004
• Study Completion: July 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 12, 2005
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 12, 2005
• First Posted (Estimate): September 15, 2005

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): December 21, 2005
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 20, 2005
• Last Verified: September 1, 2005

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 93621700617; DOH93-TD-M-113-032