A study in the Jan. 2009 issue of Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease reveals hope for recovery from suicidal and self destructive phenomena in treatment resistant mental illness

1.15.2009

In 1992, the Austen Riggs Center began to follow 226 admitted patients in a multidimensional follow-along study that asked, among others, a most basic question: Can these patients recover? Given the clinical profile of the subjects — they typically had five or six diagnoses, including major affective disorders, schizophrenia, PTSD, personality disorders, substance abuse, and various types of eating disorders — even many mental health professionals would be dubious. But now, with data published in the January, 2009 issue of the Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease comes the heartening news that, for a wide majority of the sample, the answer is a resounding yes.