The Finnish National Schizophrenia Project 1981–1987: 10‐year evaluation of its results

Abstract

This study reports the 10-year evaluation of the Finnish National Schizophrenia Project. The aims of the national project were achieved. The number of long-stay schizophrenic patients in psychiatric hospitals decreased by 63% between 1982 and 1992. Both the treatment of schizophrenic patients and the structure of mental health services have changed greatly in Finland. Psychosocial treatment methods in particular have developed. The major innovations of the Project are the acute psychosis teams now serving over 50% of the country, and social skills training programmes. The 10-year evaluation of the Finnish National Schizophrenia Project shows that it is possible to conduct successfully nation-wide projects to develop the treatment of schizophrenic patients and psychiatric practices across an entire country.

Towards a more humanistic psychiatry: Development of need‐adapted treatment of schizophrenia group psychoses

“…In the most serious cases the initial focus is usually on family sessions, often with a subsequent shift towards individual therapy or support, whereas patients with less severe symptoms often start individual therapy right after the therapy meeting, if possible outside the hospital ward. During the course of the nationwide Finnish schizophrenia project, coordinated by me in the 1980s (Alanen et al 1990;Tuori et al, 1998), the need-adapted approach was applied in many other parts of the country. It was especially common to set up multi-professional psychosis teams, which focused on the evaluation and treatment of newly admitted psychosis patients.…”

Lessons from psychotherapy research for psychological interventions for people with schizophrenia

“…However, successful family interventions incorporating psychodynamic principles or techniques have been carried out in both Scandinavia and the US (e.g. Levene, Newman, & Jefferies, 1989Tuori et al, 1998), and reports have begun to appear in British psychotherapy literature reporting on successful exploratory use of psychodynamicinterpersonal interventions with people with schizophrenia (Davenport, Hobson, & Margison, 2000).…”

Decline in the Incidence of Schizophrenia in Finnish Cohorts Born From 1954 to 1965

“…Although the numbers were small, a diagnostic shift from schizophrenia to these diagnoses could explain some of the observed decline in schizophrenia incidence. The rise in other nonaffective psychotic disorders also reflected the increased diagnostic delay, partly caused by shorter hospital admissions 65 in the 1980s: the proportion of schizophrenic patients who were so diagnosed in their first admission decreased from 77% in the first to 70% in the last cohort. Thus, a narrowing clinical concept of schizophrenia probably at least partially explains the observed period effect.…”