Effect of psychoeducation on family functioning of family members of patients with schizophrenia, on social support levels of patients, and treatment compliance

Objective: This research was carried out to evaluate the effect of psychoeducation program given to family members of patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia and monitoring on family functioning, the levels of family social support perceived by patients, and treatment collaboration. Methods: The sampling of the study, which was conducted as a pretest-posttest semi-experimental design with a control group, consisted of 66 patients and caregivers (32 experimental and 34 controls) who were diagnosed with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV criteria and received outpatient treatment and follow-up at Erzincan State Hospital and Erzurum Numune Hospital. The caregivers in the experimental group were given psychoeducation once a week for a total 14 sessions that lasted 90-100 minutes each and the patients were monitored for 6 months. The control group was subjected to routine outpatient monitoring. The caregivers were administered the Family Evaluation Scale, and the patients were given the Family-Oriented Perceived Social Support Scale and the Treatment,Evaluation Chart. Psychoeducation involves the administration of Coping with Symptoms and Medication Treatment modules of the Social Skills program. The data were analyzed using percentage, chi-square, and t-test for dependent and independent groups. Results: Following psychoeducation and monitoring, a statistically significant difference was found between the experimental group and control group in terms of family functioning of caregivers and the levels of family social support perceived by patients (p<0.001), and it was determined that medication noncompliance rate for the experimental group reduced from 40.6% to 21.9%. Conclusion: It is concluded that a 14-week psychoeducation program and a 6-month monitoring has a highly significant impact on family members of schizophrenia patients to develop healthy family functioning, on the levels of family social support perceived by patients, and the patients' treatment compliance. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2010; 11:195-205)