Cognitive ^ behavioural therapy andmotivational intervention for schizophrenia andsubstancemisuse 18-month outcomes of a randomised controlled trial

Declaration of interest None. Fundingdetailed in Acknowledgements. Studies have indicated that cognitive– behavioural therapy (CBT) plus treatment as usual for patients with schizophrenia have significant benefits on relapse and patient functioning (Pilling et al, 2002; Cormac et al, 2003). However, the application of CBT to psychotic disorders involving substance use has been evaluated very little, or where evaluations have been reported the findings have been limited by poor methodology (Ley et al, 2001). The current study evaluated the effectiveness of an individual and family-oriented CBT programme for chronic treatment-resistant psychosis combined with motivational intervention for substance use problems over an 18-month follow-up period. Preliminary findings on patient outcome from the treatment phase of the study have been reported already (Barrowclough et al, 2001). The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the integrated programme of interventions had a beneficial effect on illness, substance use, carer and health economy outcomes over 18 months.