Plain language summary
Psychoeducation added to standard treatment for schizophrenia
The purpose of psychoeducation (or patient education/teaching) 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 the mentally ill person. This review compares the efficacy of psychoeducation added to standard care as a means of helping severely mentally ill people, with that of standard care alone. The evidence shows a significant reduction of relapse or readmission rates. It may be estimated that around twelve relapses can be avoided, or at least postponed, for around a year if 100 patients receive psychoeducation. 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 persons' well being. 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.