Psychoeducation (brief) for people with serious mental illness

Abstract

Based on mainly low to very low quality evidence from a limited number of studies, brief psychoeducation of any form appears to reduce relapse in the medium term, and promote medication compliance in the short term. A brief psychoeducational approach could potentially be effective, but further large, high-quality studies are needed to either confirm or refute the use of this approach.

Rehabilitation Interventions to Promote Recovery from Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review

“…In these works, the median length of psychoeducation therapies was around 12 weeks, which is very costly in terms of time. Some works seem to indicate that short psychoeducation programs (<8 sessions) also reduce relapse and promote medication compliance, but these results have to be confirmed by further high-quality studies (48). It is also difficult to get a consistent view of the various measures of functioning as the data were very heterogeneous.…”

Effectiveness of life skills education and psychoeducation on emotional and behavioral problems among adolescents in institutional care in Kenya: a longitudinal study

“…Psychoeducation refers to the education of a person with a mental disorder regarding its symptomatology, causes, treatments available, and the prognosis (Xia, Zhao, & Jayaram, ). Psychoeducation is not simply ‘providing information’, but rather an empowerment training for individuals whose target is to promote the awareness, inform on treatment modalities available, coping strategies and appropriate behavior and attitude change to enhance effective response to the chronic condition (Zhao, Sampson, Xia, & Jayaram, ).…”

A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Money Management Intervention for Veterans With Psychiatric Disabilities

“…Findings have clinical implications for case management services for clients with psychiatric disabilities (7), which typically involve less formal money management assistance than the $AFE intervention. Although results are mixed, research indicates that brief psychoeducational interventions appear to be modestly associated with reduced relapse (8). Recent literature on financial literacy indicates that onetime educational interventions that use a single modality or session to teach materials have limited effectiveness in bringing about significant change, but they may be more effective if they target particular population subgroups (14,15).…”

“…Designed primarily for case managers working with veterans with psychiatric disabilities, $AFE adapts skills training materials from various sources, including the VA, SSA, the U.S. Department of Labor, and Boston University Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner Tools (7). A brief psychoeducational intervention (8), $AFE involves outlining specific strategies to help military veterans to save money, for example, by providing information about veteran discounts for goods and services. Facilitators teach veterans how to create a viable budget by first distinguishing between expense needs and expense wants and then listing their own income and expenses, including saving 10% of their income for emergencies and another 10% for reaching a goal or purchasing a desired item.…”