Closer family-doctor co-op to treat schizophrenia

China's health ministry plans to promote therapies for schizophrenia patients based on closer interactions between family members and doctors, an official said on Thursday.

The therapeutic alliance formed between doctors and a patient's family will help patients receive continuous treatment and prevent relapses, Yan Jun, head of the mental health division under the disease control department of the Ministry of Health, said at an event here.

The ministry will select several psychiatric hospitals to run trials of the therapeutic patterns, he said.

Currently, 41 percent of schizophrenia patients in China relapse within a year after being released from hospital, said Yang Fude, head of Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, a leading psychiatric hospital and one of the hospitals set to participate in the trial.

"In most hospitals, treatments for schizophrenia patients are mostly medicines, and decisions are only made by doctors," Yang said.

It would greatly help if patients' families could be included in the treatment and their understanding of the illness improves, he said.

However, there is still no standard pattern for how the family members will engage in the treatment.

Psychiatrists are building suitable patterns for such therapeutic alliances for Chinese patients, borrowing models from their Western counterparts, Yang said.

More research and tests should be done before any therapeutic pattern can be promoted, he added.

China adopted the country's first mental health law last week. It highlights the duties of family members of the mentally ill.

Under the law, family members bear the responsibility of sending the mentally ill to hospital as soon as possible and taking care of them if they are not institutionalized.