Schizophrenia is a long-term, chronic illness with a high disability rate and disease burden. Treatment for schizophrenia should focus on the wider social aspects of living in the community in addition to medicating the immediate symptoms of this long-term illness. Reliance on medication alone is insufficient, especially for patients with an illness which is often very debilitating. There are several kinds of intervention strategies available, often involving both the individual sufferer and the wider family unit; Morita therapy being one of these.
Morita therapy is a systematic psychotherapy based on Eastern psychology. The aim of this type of therapy is to alleviate the anxiety of sufferers and eliminate neurotic symptoms by encouraging the patient to accept anxiety as a natural state, whilst at the same time engaging them in constructive behaviours via four phases. To date the efficacy of Morita therapy for schizophrenia has not been verified systematically. In this review we analysed the effects of Morita therapy in hospital settings for people with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like conditions.
We were only able to include 12 studies, which varied in terms of the number of treatment phases used, and duration of treatment. Six studies were not blinded and four were inadequately randomised. Results indicate Morita therapy may have some early positive effects, but there is no data to assess whether this can be sustained in the long term. This review highlights the need for better-designed studies to assess the efficacy of this therapy in the treatment of schizophrenia.