ABSTRACT
A preliminary consideration based on experimental evidence documents the efficacy of the psychotherapy in schizophrenic psychosis. The only type of psychotherapeutic intervention, besides the behavioural and cognitive approach, that has shown an unequivocal efficacy in treating schizophrenia is family therapy. Obviously this does not mean that other psychotherapeutic orientations are less useful for schizophrenia, only that controlled data regarding their efficacy has not yet been produced. A new approach to psychotic illnesses seems to be in order that could be called cognitive neuropsychiatry, following Panthelis and Maruff. It is interesting to note that this new orientation began with the study of schizophrenia and then expanded to other illnesses, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. According to this model, we need to systematically analyze the biological markers of the psychiatric conditions in order to document functional changes after the introduction of the therapeutic processes.
