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Existential needs of people with psychotic disorders in Pôrto Alegre, Brazil

Hospital Psiquiátrico São Pedro and Faculty of Health Sciences, Rede Metodista de Educacão, Brazil

MICHAEL KING, MD

Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK

Correspondence: Professor Michael King, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF, UK. Tel: ++444 (0)20 7830 2397; fax: +44 (0)20 7830 2808; e-mail: m.king{at}medsch.ucl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest None.

Background Needs for care in service users with schizophrenia are often defined by professionals and focus on basic needs for health and social care rather than broader existential issues.

Aims To examine the perceptions of users and formal and informal carers of the needs of people with non-affective psychosis.

Method A qualitative study was conducted involving focus groups of service users and informal and formal carers in a major Brazilian city.

Results Existential needs were the most important theme for people with psychotic disorders. Informal and formal carers mainly regarded such needs as secondary to needs for health, housing, leisure and work. Carers usually reduced the existential questioning of the ill person to symptoms or the result of a privation such as lack or failure of medication and its consequences.

Conclusions We require an approach to service users wherein respect and understanding are prized as the first needs from which all others will naturally follow. We also need to give greater priority to existential issues in validated schedules that measure needs in clinical work and research.

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				L Borras, S Mohr, P-Y Brandt, C Gillieron, A Eytan, and P Huguelet Religious Beliefs in Schizophrenia: Their Relevance for Adherence to Treatment Schizophr Bull, September 1, 2007; 33(5): 1238 - 1246. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]