Schizophrenia can cause disabling experiences and distress
to both people with schizophrenia and their families. Because
family members are the main carers for patients in the community,
the effect of caring for patients is often described
as burdensome and includes the different subjective and
objective aspects of physical, emotional, or psychological
and socioeconomic health problems.4 Although different
terminology is used for family-focused interventions in
schizophrenia, Pharoah et al6 suggested the terms psychosocial,
psychoeducation, and behavioral management
approaches to family interventions generally refer to those
interventions in an individual or group format, in which
patient and family members meet together, there is a skills
acquisition component in addition to a didactic teaching
element, and the primary aim of the program is to reduce
patient relapse and readmission. However, family education,
consultation, support, and counseling and relatives’ groups
usually refer to interventions directed at family members
alone (excluding the patient), and their primary focus is on
family members’ needs. Since the early 1960s there has been
a better understanding of the effects of the family’s expressed
emotion in relation to the course of the illness and relapses,
resulting in the increased study of family partnership in
schizophrenia care over the last three decades.56