No abstract

Sibutramine was an effective and well-tolerated adjunct to behavior modification for weight loss in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder being treated with olanzapine.

This article posits that the positive findings for supportive therapy (ST) in recent trials may indicate an important but undervalued aspect of psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia. In developing this thesis, we consider the possible mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of ST observed in recent trials of cognitive behavioral therapy for schizophrenia. We place this evidence in the context of a review of psychological models of mental health, the therapeutic alliance, and research on social cognition and social support in schizophrenia. We conclude this article by describing a new theoretically driven intervention for schizophrenia, functional cognitive-behavioral therapy (FCBT), which improves functional outcomes by integrating evidence-based advances in cognitive behavioral therapy with the strengths of ST approaches.

This combination may be useful for clozapine-associated medical morbidity and must be studied in placebo-controlled double-blind randomized trials to determine efficacy and safety.