People with schizophrenia must have a say in their treatment

People with schizophrenia in England and Wales should be involved in all decisions on their care and should be offered psychological as well as drug treatment. These are two of the recommendations in guidelines published by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) this week.

The guidelines outline what was judged to be best practice for health professionals caring for individuals with schizophrenia, after review of available evidence by a group of health professionals and people with schizophrenia.

The first recommendation—“health professionals should work in partnership with service users …