Impact of Family Psychoeducation Intervention on Relapse Prevention in Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients

Family psychoeducation is considered as an intervention focused on individual rehabilitation of mental disorders through improving the caregiver’s awareness about their family member’s illness, risk factors, and treatment component and relapse prevention strategies.

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of family psychoeducation on patients’ relapse and length of stay in hospital.

In this retrospective study, registered data in the health information management unit, including demographic data, acute symptoms and signs and medical history, was used and sample selection was done through a purposive sampling procedure. Participants consisted of 2192 patients with severe mental disorders admitted to Ibn Sina Psychiatric Hospital in Bandar Abbas, Iran since 2009 to 2014. The recipients of psychoeducation comprised all immediate family members of the patients in psychiatric hospital who were available at time of discharge. Subjects were receiving standard pharmacologic treatment and one session of individual family psychoeducation interventions. The psychoeducation was presented by a psychologist and a nurse upon patient discharge day from hospital between 2011 and 2014. The findings including recurrence rate and admission durations were compared with data collected during the three years leading to the intervention (2009 to 2011). Data was assessed through Paired-sample t-test.

The results revealed that receiving psychoeducation by family can positively affect the rate of readmission (t = 41.30, P < 0.001) and the length of stay in hospital (t = 39.10, P < 0.001).

Since psychoeducation of caregivers can be significantly influential in reducing the recurrence rate and duration of hospitalization, it is advisable after discharge for patients suffering from chronic mental disorders.