Types of interventions
1. We included all didactic interventions of psychoeducation or patient teaching involving individuals or groups. We have defined psychoeducational interventions as any group or individual programme involving interaction between information provider and patient. These programmes address the illness from a multidimensional viewpoint, including familial, social, biological and pharmacological perspectives. Patients are provided with support, information and management strategies. We considered programmes of 10 sessions or less as 'brief', and of 11 or more as 'standard' for the purposes of this review. We excluded interventions including elements of behavioural training, such as social skills or life skills training, as well as education performed by patient peers, from this review. We also excluded staff education studies.
2. Standard care was defined as the normal level of psychiatric care provided in the area where the trial was carried out.