Peer Support for Severe Mental Disorders

Randomized Controlled Trial of Peer to Peer Support for People With Severe Mental Disorders: Schizophrenia, Affective Disorders and Personality Disorders in Comparison to Standard Care

The purpose of this study is to determine wether peer support is effective for the treatment of people with severe mental illness.

A randomized controlled multi center trial is conducted, where patients receive usual care in the control group and usual care with additional peer support for 6 month in the intervention group. Psychosocial outcome criteria are collected pre intervention, after 6 month intervention and at one year follow up. Days till hospitalization and days spent in hospital are collected for one year before recruitment and one year after recruitment.

Inclusion Criteria:

• clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, personality disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

• primary clinical diagnosis of addiction