Effectiveness of A Short Psychoeducational Intervention on Patients with Schizophrenia in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

Mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) have demonstrated encouraging therapeutic outcomes in a small number of studies, the majority of which took place in industrialized nations. Its psychoeducation has been found to counteract stigma and assist patients to take added responsibility for their own being and thus live more meaningful lives. Despite these benefits, studies assessing the relative benefit of psycho-education to schizophrenic patients in the tertiary health care system in Nigeria are scarce. This study aims to explore the effectiveness psychoeducation in improving significantly the mental health, social functioning, social acceptability, community living skills, and work skills of patients with schizophrenia in a tertiary care context. The study employed a one-group pretest-posttest design. A group of 23 persons were exposed to a 2-hourly, 8-session Mindfulness-based psychoeducation program at the psychiatric wards of OAUTHC, Ile-Ife. The participants were screened and responded to the Social Support Questionnaire, Insight, and Treatment Attitudes Questionnaire (ITAQ). Data was analyzed using a t-test for repeated measures at p = .05 level of significance. Findings showed that the average age of the participants was 34.70 years (SD = 11.44), with the average duration of illness being 3.7 years (SD = 2.7 years) and 2.3 years (SD = 1.6 years) hospitalization rates. Also, insight, social functioning, social acceptability, community living skills, and work skills significantly improved after exposure to mindfulness and insight psycho-education. Therefore, it is recommended that this strategy might be used to manage and lessen the psychological problems experienced by individuals with schizophrenia.