Schizophrenia - importance, difficulties and the role of the general practitioner in the management concept

Schizophrenia is the most serious of all functional psychiatric disorders, with a complex clinical picture and a mostly chronic, episodic course. Although contemporary pharmacotherapy is a fundamental component of efficient management of the disorder, it often provokes compliance problems due to side effects. However, poor compliance or discontinuation of treatment inevitably leads to relapses and renewed hospitalisation instead of the desired outpatient care and early resocialisation for patients. Only new substances with minor extrapyramidal side effects offer hope of solving this dilemma. In addition to psychopharmacotherapy, psycho- and sociotherapeutic measures are highly valuable in the management concept for schizophrenia. Despite the fact that comprehensive patient care, sometimes continuing for years, places high demands on general practitioners, they seem predestined for this task due to their patient knowledge and experience.