ABSTRACT
The past decade has seen renewed interest in the role of psychosocial factors in the development and outcome of psychotic disorders, even from previously hard-line biological researchers and despite the dominance over recent years of a predominantly biomedical and pharmacological paradigm in addressing these disorders (see reviews by Csernansky and Grace 1998; Hemsley and Murray 2000; Martindale et al. 2000; Wykes et al. 1998). Overall, the ‘stressvulnerability’ paradigm (Nuechterlein and Subotnik 1998; Zubin and Spring 1977) positing genetic and/or biological vulnerability to such disorders in the context of psychosocial stressors (both developmentally and contemporaneously) has generated a greater consensus among all workers whether they are predominantly of a biomedical or psychosocial orientation. Thus clinical research questions have come to be centred around which aspects of which treatment models will be most effective in addressing the variety of psychological difficulties and symptoms which may lead to, perpetuate or exacerbate these disorders.
