The poor hope of improvement and recovery in schizophrenia may be a myth

However I very much doubt if doctors have heard this information and if patients are ever informed and given a hope instead of being told things like, "It would be better if they'd got a diagnosis of cancer" (which one psychiatrist used to tell parernts and carers).

From
http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/articles/ehss.html

Indeed, longitudinal studies of thousands of ex-patients in many countries show that one-half to two-thirds of the individuals diagnosed as schizophrenic have achieved full recovery or significant improvement many years later. The percentages are:

1. Bleuler (1968), Zurich study: 23% fully recovered, 43% significantly improved, 66% total.
   

2. Huber, Gross, Schuttler, and Linz. (1980), Bonn study: 26% fully recovered, 31% significantly improved, 57% total.
   

3. World Health Organization (1979), world-wide two-year follow-up: 26% very favourable, 25% favourable, 51% total.
   

4. Ciompi (1980), Lausanne study: 29% fully recovered, 24% significantly improved, 53% total.
   

5. Harding et al. (1987), Vermont study: 34% fully recovered, 34% significantly improved, 68% total.
   

6. Tsuang et al. (1979), Iowa study: 20% fully recovered, 26% significantly improved, 46% total.
   

7. Hegarty et al. (1994), meta-analysis of 320 outcome studies covering all countries, all decades, with 51,800 subjects 5-6 years after being diagnosed schizophrenic with broad criteria: 46.5% improved.
   

8. Warner (1994), review of 85 outcome studies during 1956-1985: 20-25% complete recovery, 40-45% social recovery, 60-70% total.
   

9. Wiersma et al. (1998), 15 year follow-up of a dutch cohort: 27% complete remission, 50% partial remission.

Many of the ex-patients in the studies listed above were evaluated 20 to 35 years after discharge. Those who recovered include ex-patients once viewed as the most profoundly disturbed. Courtenay Harding and her colleagues (Harding, 1987) tracked down and evaluated 82 individuals who, 20 to 25 years before, had been the most hopeless, chronically disturbed, back-ward patients when discharged from a state hospital into a rehabilitation program. Harding emphasizes that "for one-half to two-thirds the long-term outcome was neither downward or marginal, but an evolution to various degrees of productivity, social involvement, wellness, and competent functioning" (p. 730). Many of them were found to be completely symptom free.