In the past 30 years, research on Expressed Emotions and family burden, and the adoption of the stress-vulnerability model of schizophrenia, have led to the development of integrated treatments for this mental disorder combining pharmacological and family cognitive-behavioural interventions. The latter, called Psychoeducational Family Interventions (PFI), aim to: a) provide the family with information about the patient's disorder and its treatments; b) improve family communication patterns; c) enhance family's problem solving skills; d) encourage relatives’ involvement in social activities.

Since the 1980s, a number of RCT and several meta-analyses have demonstrated the efficacy of PFI on relapse and hospitalisation rates in schizophrenia.

In recent years, there has been a shift from efficacy to effectiveness studies and great attention by the researchers in developing training programmes in PFI for ordinary staff.

In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the studies on PFI for schizophrenia which have been carried out in the last decade in routine clinical settings or with at least partial involvement of ordinary staff. These studies have been grouped into: a) studies comparing PFI with standard care; b) studies comparing PFI with individual integrated interventions; c) studies comparing different PFI strategies; d) implementation studies.

The results of these studies reveal that, when provided in clinical settings, PFI have positive middle-term effects on patients’ clinical status and disability, and limited impact on family burden.

Future studies are needed to identify the “best dose” at which PFI can be provided in routine conditions at the most convenient cost-benefit ratio.