COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY AND PSYCHEDUCATION ON PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS AMONG SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS

Abstract

The study examined the effects of rational emotive behavior therapy and psychoeducation
among schizophrenic patients. Patients of age range 18 and 59 years with mean age of 34.65
and standard deviation of 11.31 were selected from Neuro-psychiatric hospital, Nwafia. One
instrument was used for the study: The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale developed by Overall and
Gorham (1962) and validated in Nigeria. The study was an experimental study and pretestposttest
between group designs was used. One –way Anova was employed as the statistical tool
for data analyses. The result indicated a significant reduction in psychiatric symptoms in
patients treated with REBT than the control at (P<.01. The second hypothesis which stated that
schizophrenic patients who received psychoeducation will show significantly lower psychiatric
symptoms when compared with the control was confirmed p < .01. The third hypothesis which
stated that schizophrenic patients who received REBT will show reduced psychiatric symptoms
when compared with those that receive psychoeducation was not confirmed at F (27) = 8.06,
P>.01. This reveals that both REBT and psychoeducation reduced psychiatric symptoms among
schizophrenic patients. This study therefore recommends the use of rational emotive behavior
therapy and psychoeducation in the treatment of psychiatric symptoms among schizophrenic
patients.