Trial Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) Effects of IMR on patients with severe mental illness

INTERVENTION: IMR can be described as a structured training course which includes eleven modules, practitioner guides and handouts for participants. In the participating institutes the IMR‐training is given in a group format with weekly sessions for about one year. CONDITION: Severe mental illness, Chronic Psychiatric Problems ; ; PRIMARY OUTCOME: Primary outcome measure is the score on the self‐rated Illness management and recovery scale (Mueser et al. 2004) SECONDARY OUTCOME: ‐ The IMR‐scale clinician‐rated version (Mueser et al 2004) ; ‐ The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) (Derogatis & Melisaratos 1983) ; ‐ The number of relapses (operationalized in the number of hospital admissions) INCLUSION CRITERIA: ‐ Patients with serious and persistent psychiatric illnesses. Most of them will be patients who have a psychotic disorder, schizoaffective disorders or bipolar disorders with or without comorbid disorders (such as substance abuse and personality disorders) ‐ The patient is treated on an outpatient basis ‐ Written informed consent