Psycho-Education in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder characterised by change in a person’s perception, thoughts, behaviour, and cognitive functions. The illness has a chronic course which causes significant disturbance in various aspects of a person’s life including social, occupational, and functional aspects. The effective management of schizophrenia has to be a combined approach including both pharmacotherapy and psychosocial interventions which have to be tailor-made considering the symptomatology and the phase of illness so that the patient and the family get the maximum benefits. Psycho-education is an integral part of the acute as well as long-term management of schizophrenia. Psycho-education improves the level of understanding of people about schizophrenia and ensures active participation of both the patients and their caregivers in the treatment. The literature available on psycho-education in schizophrenia suggests that patients and families are benefitted in terms of understanding the illness, reducing relapse rates, improved social functioning and quality of life, decreased negative symptoms, reduction in expenditure on the illness, etc. There are several psycho-education models used in the management of schizophrenia that are utilised based on multiple factors involved with the illness. There is emphasis on inclusion of psycho-education programme routinely in all management plans for schizophrenia and also the use of various resources available and technology at disposal to educate the patient and family on the illness.