[Social skills training in severe mental illness--is it effective?]

Abstract

Objective: To report about existing evidence of effectiveness of social skills training for severely mentally ill adults.

Methods: Systematic electronic and manual literature search for systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials (RCTs).

Results: Social skills training is a widely used intervention for people with severe mental illness. We identified four reviews and seven RCTs demonstrating the efficacy and effectiveness of social skills training. Results suggest that patients would benefit from trainings by improving social skills and social functioning. There are ambiguous results regarding other outcomes.

Conclusions: People with severe mental illness should be provided with social skills training, if necessary, combined with cognitive remediation. Those techniques are required which actively support the generalization of positive achievements into patients' natural environments.