Psychoeducation and compliance in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Psychoeducation provides to the patient and his family members full information about schizophrenia and all aspects of the treatment. If the patient is not fully informed about the treatment and the side effects, there is a higher risk for discontinuation of the therapy without consulting his psychiatrist. Dicontinuation of the treatment is one of the main reasons for the relapse of schizophrenia. Aim of the study was to define wheter there are differences in compliance between two groups of patients, one who went through education about schizophrenia and the other group without the education about the disease. Group of 30 patients were during the hospitalisation educated about the schizophrenia and the treatment of the disease, while the control group of 30 patients were not educated. On the admission to the hospital, on the release from the hospital and after three months from the release from the hospital patients were rated with Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and Clinical Global Impression, compliance was rated with Compliance Assessment Inventory, attitude towards drugs with Drug Attitude Inventory, and social functioning of the patients with Global Assessment of Functioning. Knowledge about the disease was assessed with specially disagned questionnaire with 12 questions. Results of our study show us the importance of education on the compliance, as well as on the positive attitude towards the drug treatment, which is one of the most important predictors of the successful treatment of the schizophrenia.