Patients with mental disease are not in touch with their emotions, they do not recognize them and are incapable of finding alternative ways to face life difficulties.

Consequently, anxiety which evolves from stressful situations literally immobilizes them.

Our aim was to isolate the factors which create stressful situations that lead patients in relapsing.

We studied patients’ inability to cope with their emotions and the stress that follows. We studied 25 patients living in the R.U. “Eurikleia”, 30 patients in follow-up and 50 patients who were hospitalized in the 3rd Psychiatric Department of the Psychiatric Hospital of Athens.

Our therapeutic procedure was the following:

• prescription of atypical anti-psychotics

• completion of the MMPI

• examination of family/personal history

• examination of family dynamics/dysfunctions

• individualized therapeutic intervention for each patient and family evaluation of the results one year later.

Our intervention comprised of family therapy, setting family roles boundaries, patients’ autonomy, agreement in interventions between family and the therapeutic group and patients’ encouragement to take initiatives concerning their personal life.

1. Ø the functionality of the patients had improved

2. Ø there was an important restoration of their sociability

3. Ø there were still deficits regarding their socialization and professional rehabilitation

4. Ø there was improvement regarding their autonomy

5. Ø their dependence had been substituted for interdependence.

Through this study the most obvious conclusion we reached at was the necessity of patients’ and their families’ re-education in order to be able to live a meaningful life.