The effect of psych education with using mobile phone on the stress in family caregivers of discharged bipolar patients

Caregivers of patients with bipolar disorder often feel helpless and experience anxiety, depression, and stress after discharge. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of psych education with using mobile phone on the stress in family caregivers of patients with bipolar disorder after discharge from hospital.

The present study is a two-group quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design that was conducted in 1398 in Baharan Zahedan Educational and Medical Center. They were selected by convenience sampling method (available) and randomly assigned to two groups equal to control (45) and intervention (45). Data collection tools included a demographic characteristics questionnaire and a 14-item Cohen stress questionnaire. For the intervention group, training via mobile phone and SMS was done one day in between for 20 days after discharge and for the control group no training was provided. Caregiverschr(chr (chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr ('39'))) stress levels were measured and compared before and after the intervention in both groups. Data were analyzed using SPSS software using chi-square, independent t-test and paired t-test and p-value <0.05 was used.

The results showed that both groups were homogeneous in terms of individual social characteristics and the mean stress level in the intervention group in the pre-test was 29.70 with a standard deviation of 7.14 and in the control group was 29.52 with a standard deviation of 7.14. The mean stress level in the intervention group in the post-test was 26.12 with a standard deviation of 6.53 and in the control group was 30.65 with a standard deviation of 7.11.

The results of this study confirmed the effectiveness of mobile phone-based psycho education in reducing the stress of family caregivers of discharged patients with bipolar disorder. It is recommended to use this method to reduce the stress of family caregivers of these patients.