P L A I N L A N G U A G E S U M M A R Y
Psychoeducation added to standard treatment for schizophrenia reduces relapse
The purpose of patient education/teaching (or psychoeducation) is to increase patients’ knowledge and understanding of their illness
and treatment. It is supposed that increased knowledge enables people with schizophrenia to cope more effectively with their illness.
Psychoeducational interventions involve interaction between the information provider and thementally ill person.This review compares
the efficacy of psychoeducation added to standard care as ameans of helping severelymentally ill people with that of standard care alone.
The evidence shows a significant reduction of relapse or readmission rates. There seems to be some suggestion that psychoeducation
may improve compliance with medication, but the extent of improvement remains unclear. The findings show a possibility that
psychoeducation has a positive effect on a person’s well being and promotes better social function. In the medium term, treating
four people with schizophrenia with psychoeducation instead of standard care resulted in one additional person showing a clinical
improvement. The scarcity of studies made the comparison between the efficacy of different formats (programmes of 10 sessions or
less or 11 or more, individual or group sessions) weak.
Psychoeducation