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Severely impaired insight is one of the main characteristics of psychotic disorders that present a major obstacle for treatment. Traditionally, insight has often been viewed as a simple or unitary construct. Recently, it is considered as a complex phenomenon with multiple components. A general lack of insight is widespread and very common in many patients with schizophrenia. Psycho-education is a form of mental health intervention which focuses on educating patients about their disorders, emotional responses, and treatments, as well as supporting positive coping mechanisms. The main purpose of this study was to determine the impact of psycho-education intervention on insight development among hospitalized schizophrenic patients. A structured frame of psycho-education intervention was developed by the researchers. The intervention aimed at increasing patients' awareness about their mental disorder, their symptoms as well as its attribution, the social consequences of mental disorder and the achieved effects of medication. Before the implementation of psycho-education intervention, the total Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) mean scores for current awareness and attribution were 13.78±2.95 for the intervention group and 15.04±2.73 for the control group (mild to moderate degree lack of insight). These results changed after the implementation of the psycho-education intervention to 7.96±2.81 and 15.67±2.39 respectively, with a statistical significant improvement (t=14.731, P=0.00) on the part of the intervention group. This was also true when comparing the two groups' SUMD subscale mean scores.

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Awareness about illness is defined in terms of a patient's psychological attitude toward the psychiatric situation, and is to be evaluated from the standpoint of the person's sick-role concept, by assessing the recognition of the need for treatment and acceptance of the treatment situation. Previous researches have suggested that lack of psychiatric patients' awareness of their illness may have considerable power in predicting the long-term course of chronic mental disorders, and have an impact on patients compliance with treatment plans and relapses of psychosis. The aim of this study was to find out the psychotic patients' awareness of their illness and its correlates. The results suggest that self-awareness deficits are a prevalent feature in mentally ill patients, perhaps stemming from the neuropsychological dysfunction associated with the disorders, and deficits in illness awareness are associated with greater number and longer duration of hospitalizations, and is considered one of the most important reasons for non-compliance.

Sleep disorders are common and significant complaints of depressed older people. A large proportion of depressed older people are at risk for sleep disturbances, which may be caused by many factors. It was thus the intent of this study to assess the sleeping pattern of depressed elders living in elderly homes. Results of the present study revealed that, the majority of the studied depressed elders had sleeping difficulties and more than half of them took more than 60 minutes in bed to fall asleep. Almost all the subjects woke up more than 3 times during the night, and the most frequently reported causes were frequency of micturition, anxiety, and pain. Three-quarters of the studied elders did not feel comfortable when waking up in the morning, and this affected their ability to perform their daily living activities. It is thus recommended to encourage elderly clients to establish a routine sleep schedule, to stick to rituals that help to relax before bed time and to suggest consultation with appropriate specialist depending on the underlying causes of the sleep disorder.