Working with families in schizophrenic disorders : the practice of psychoeducational intervention

• Psychoeducational intervention including educational courses for relatives and individual family sessions was carried out with relatives of patients suffering from schizophrenic disorders. Relatives' Expressed Emotion (BE), amount of illness-related knowledge, burden of care, and satisfaction with the intervention were assessed.Relatives' measures of BE (critical remarks, hostility, emotional overinvolvement) and the general BE index decreased significantly after the complete intervention, comprising educational courses for relatives from different families and, for a period of two years, individual family sessions with the participation of the patient. The number of relatives scoring high on the BE index, was significantly reduced after the initial educational courses. The interrater reliability of BE measures, assessed with the Swedish version of the Camberwell Family interview schedule and calculated on data from audiotaped interviews, was generally high.The amount of illness-related knowledge increased significantly after the multifamily educational courses. Gain in knowledge and high satisfaction with the intervention were associated with decrease of criticism towards the ill family member, and with relief of relatives' subjective burden. The relatives expressed an appreciative evaluation of the intervention and indicated the socializing and sharing of experiences with other relatives as a most valuable component.In the face of relatives' need for information about the illness, the diagnostic process of schizophrenia was studied. Retrospective analyses of case-records from 84 in-patients showed that schizophrenic disorders were ascertained as case-record diagnoses on average six years after the first contact with the mental health service. The findings suggest a propensity to include prolonged course and severe impairment of social functioning in the clinical concept of schizophrenia.

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