A new approach to treating early schizophrenia, which includes family counseling, results in improvements in quality of life that make it worth the added expense, researchers reported on Monday.

The study, published by the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, is the first rigorous cost analysis of a federally backed treatment program that more than a dozen states have begun trying. In contrast to traditional outpatient care, which generally provides only services covered by insurance, like drugs and some psychotherapy, the new program offers other forms of support, such as help with jobs and school, as well as family counseling.

The program also tries to include the patients — people struggling with a first psychotic “break” from reality, most of them in their late teens and 20s — as equals in decisions about care, including drug dosage.

In a widely anticipated study last fall, called the Raise trial, researchers reported that after two years, people who got this more comprehensive care did better on a variety of measures than those who received the standard care. But the study found no evidence of related cost savings or differences in hospitalization rates, a prime driver of expense. As lawmakers in Washington are considering broad changes in mental health care, cost issues loom especially large.