Functional Recovery in Schizophrenia

Background: Schizophrenia has been severely stigmatized for several decades. In recent years, the concept of ”recovery” has been suggested as the critical mission to help integrate all efforts of services in schizophrenia. Method: We did a comprehensive review on 59 published articles in the literature to examine the developing concept of recovery in schizophrenia. Results: We found that scientific definitions dealt recovery in schizophrenia as quantitative, objective, outcome-focused on the manifestations of the illness, symptoms, and functional disability. In contrast, we found that consumer-oriented definitions regarded it as qualitative, subjective, process-focused on occurrence over time with a non-linear fashion and to the model of care. These two different concepts of recovery should be treated as complementary and combined as a guidance for designing recovery-oriented services. Medical, psychological, patient, family, and social intervention should be integrated to enhance the possibility of recovery. Conclusion: Scientific literature showed that around a half of schizophrenic patients has met the objective criteria of recovery for certain periods during their lives. We suggest that recovery from schizophrenia is desirable from both social and economic perspectives, and that recovery is an attainable goal and needs to be promoted worldwide.