Past Issues

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 scientifi c
defi nitions 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 defi nitions 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: Scientifi c 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.