The effect of spiritual-religious group therapy on mental status of schizophrenic inpatients

Schizophrenia is one of the complex psychiatric disorders. Although the antipsychotic agents are the main treatment for the disorder, but psychological interventions are effective on clinical symptoms as well. The study aimed at assessing the effect of spiritual-religious group therapy on mental status of schizophrenic patients. Using semi-experimental study method 67 patients with schizophrenia were selected through Randomized Permuted Block method. They were divided to intervention (32 patients) and control (35 patients) groups. Intervention group were participated in 12 sessions of Spiritual Religious Group Therapy within 4 weeks (3 sessions per week). Each session lasted one hour. Data was collected through a Demographic Information Questionnaire and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Statistical Analysis was carried out, using Paired T-Test and One Sample T-Test. Significant differences were found between patients’ mental status before and after the intervention (P=0.001), whilst the difference was not significant in the control group (P=0.268). There were no significant differences between intervention and control groups prior to the intervention (P=0.093). Spiritual Religious Group Therapy can be effective on improvement of the mental status of schizophrenic Patients.