Compliance, quality assurance and standards for relapse prevention in schizophrenia

The treatment and, above all, the prophylaxis of schizophrenic psychoses has made great progress in the last 40 years due to the introduction of the neuroleptics and the use of psychosocial treatment strategies. Unfortunately, the potentialities inherent in neuroleptic relapse prevention are far from being fully utilized. As a consequence, the relapse rate for this severe mental illness is still 3 times higher than it ought to be. In view of the severe consequences of this disease for each individual patient and his family, but also in view of the immense costs incurred by each relapse, we must not rest content with this situation. By use of compliance improving measures and quality assurance it would probably be possible within a few years to increase the efficiency of neuroleptic relapse prevention so far as to reduce the high relapse rates of schizophrenic patients at least by half. It is time we began trying.