Does Long-Term Group Psychoeducation of Parents of Individuals with Schizophrenia Help the Family as a System? A Quasi-Experimental Study

A chronic illness like schizophrenia seriously disrupts family functioning in various ways that can be addressed through family psychoeducational interventions in routine clinical services, an approach that has not received proper research attention. We pre-and post-tested four sets of parents of individuals with schizophrenia who participated in a long-term group psychoeducational intervention (treatment group) and four sets of parents of individuals with schizophrenia who received standard outpatient services (clinical control group), using three self-reported questionnaires to measure family functioning (Family Assessment Device), family atmosphere (Family Rituals Scale), and family burden (Family Burden Scale). At pre-test, there were no systematic differences between the two groups in any of the parameters assessed. At post-test, within and across groups, comparisons revealed significant improvements (under cut-off scores) in the mean scores of the treatment group (p < 0.05) in all three parameters under study. Our findings provide pilot evidence that intensive group parent psychoeducation is an efficient and efficacious treatment intervention for improvement of systemic properties of families, such as family functioning, family atmosphere, and family burden.