Follow up of the Impact of Family-Centered Psychoeducation Based on Atkinson and Coia's Model on the Relapse and Severity of Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Frequent relapse and hospitalization of schizophrenic patients could impose large financial burdens on families and healthcare systems. This study aimed at tracking the nine-month effect of psychoeducation based on the Atkinson-Coia model on the recurrence and severity of the symptoms of schizophrenia.
This quasi-experimental study was performed on 100 hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, during year 2016 in the city of Qazvin. The patients were randomly allocated to 2 groups (50 patients per group). In the experimental group, family training, attended by the primary caregiver, was held in 8 sessions. In order to evaluate the relapse and severity of the symptoms, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used. For data analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Chi-square, paired t test, and independent t test were performed, using SPSS version 23.
The greatest impact in reducing the severity of symptoms in the test group occurred during the fifth month, so on average, the symptoms were reduced by 8.16 points and this relationship was significant (P = 0.001). In the sixth month, the severity of symptoms in the test (experimental) group, compared to a month earlier was increased by one point, on average, while, up to the eighth month, the severity of symptoms was almost constant and increased by 36 points in the ninth month. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between psycho-education and relapse of schizophrenia, except for the first month.
According to the nine-month follow-up trend, psychoeducation could effectively reducing the severity of symptoms and recurrence of schizophrenia. According to the findings of this study, it is better to repeat the training every six months.