Effectiveness of psycho-education on knowledge regarding schizophrenia and caregivers’ burden among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia – a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background. Schizophrenia is one of the commonly occurring disorders, often causing a high degree of disability to the patients, as well as being stressful to the caregivers. Objectives. To find the efficacy of psycho-education on knowledge regarding schizophrenia among caregivers and reducing their level of burden. Material and methods. A randomized controlled trial was used to assess the effectiveness of psycho-education among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. This study was conducted at a selected state government mental hospital in Karnataka, India. 350 caregivers were randomly assigned to study (n = 175) and control groups (n = 175). Both the group subjects were initially assessed for knowledge and burden. The study group caregivers participated in one or two psycho-education sessions with routine nursing care. Control group subjects received routine care in the hospital. Post-intervention assessment was done at the end of one-month and three-month intervals. Results. At pre-test, the study group caregivers' mean knowledge scores were mean = 22.93, SD = 17.03, which was improved to mean = 85.90, SD = 9.51 at the one-month follow-up and mean = 97.94, SD = 4.41 at the three-month follow-up. This improvement was statistically significant at a 0.01 level when compared to control group caregivers. The study group caregivers' mean burden scores that were initially recorded at pre-test mean = 82.37, SD = 10.40 reduced to mean = 49.13, SD = 8.28 at the one-month follow-up and mean = 40.86, SD = 6.27 at the three-month follow-up. This improvement was statistically significant at a 0.01 level when compared to control group caregivers. Conclusions. The study group caregivers showed an improvement in knowledge gain and a reduction in care burden. The present study findings provided evidence for the role of psycho-education intervention in reducing care burden among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and was also found effective in caring for their relatives with appropriate knowledge.

Effectiveness of Psychoeducation on Burden among Family Caregivers of Adults with Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…This could explain the improvement identified in some categories of the FBIS, such as disruption of routine family activities, disruption of family leisure, and disruption of family interaction [ 22 , 26 ]. This supports Ewers et al [ 52 ], Tabeleão et al [ 12 ], and Thimmajja and Lazarus Rathinasamy [ 13 ]; they highlighted that a better understanding of the nature of schizophrenia, its symptoms, and its effect on their relatives' behaviour would likely result in a change of attitude. Family caregivers may have a new perspective on the caregiving experience and change their cognitive appraisal [ 22 ].…”

“…Furthermore, Thimmajja and Lazarus Rathinasamy [ 13 ] identified reduction in family caregivers' burden after one month and three months they had engaged in a psychoeducational program. This indicates that psychoeducational programs aimed at family caregivers of adults living with schizophrenia are effective immediately after it is delivered; effectiveness can be sustained up to one year after.…”

“…Their findings showed improved knowledge of schizophrenia and positive attitude. The effectiveness of brief psychoeducation was further intensified by Thimmajja and Lazarus Rathinasamy's [ 13 ] RCT prepost control group design study. They noticed that the mean burden score of family caregivers reduced from 82.37 to 49.13 after one month and 40.86 three after months postpsychoeducation program.…”

“…Family caregivers may have a new perspective on the caregiving experience and change their cognitive appraisal [ 22 ]. In addition, Thimmajja and Lazarus Rathinasamy [ 13 ] suggested that information provided in the psychoeducational programs would enable family caregivers to recognise their relatives' behavioural deficits as negative symptoms of schizophrenia instead of referring to their relatives as being lazy; as a result, experience fewer burden [ 22 ]. It could be said that family caregivers experienced reduced financial burdens due to increased use of services as a result of increased knowledge of available resources [ 9 ].…”

Effect of online psychoeducational support on caring burden in family caregivers of COVID-19 patients: a parallel randomized controlled trial

“…Also, a study by Thimmajja and Rathinasamy aimed to determine the effect of psychoeducational support on knowledge about schizophrenia and caring burden in 350 caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. They showed that educating caregivers with general information about schizophrenia, the causes, signs, and symptoms, drug management, psychosocial management, nursing support, and family roles of these patients significantly reduced the caring burden and increased the knowledge of the caregivers [41].…”