PSYCHOEDUCATION FOR PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS

Optimal exercise dose and type for improving schizophrenia symptoms in adults: A systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Exercise has shown promise in aiding patients with schizophrenia, potentially improving symptoms, quality of life, mood, and cognition. This review evaluates the effectiveness of different physical activities in this context, aiming to guide treatment and research towards the most beneficial exercise interventions for schizophrenia management.

METHODS

This systematic review and network meta-analysis searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science, and CNKI up to March 30, 2024. We utilized the "gemtc," "MBNMAdose," "metafor," and "ggplot2" packages for data analysis in R. Additionally, our results were reported as standardized mean differences with 95 % confidence intervals. To assess the risk of bias in the included studies, we used ROB2 and CINeMA tools.

RESULTS

In the results section of our systematic review and network meta-analysis, we analyzed data from 47 studies involving 4031 participants. Our findings indicate that among the various exercise interventions examined for schizophrenia patients, yoga emerged as the most effective in improving Total symptoms, positive and negative symptoms. RT+AE (Resistance Training + Aerobic Exercise) showed the greatest improvement in general symptoms, whereas Tai Chi (TC) was the least effective. In terms of improvement of cognitive functions and depression, AE proved the most beneficial, while TC was found to be the least effective. EX+PT (Physical Exercise + Psychological Nursing) was identified as the most effective approach for improved quality of life, with TC again showing the least efficacy. The optimal total exercise dose to improve the patient's total symptoms was estimated to be 1200 METs-min/week. (SMD: -0.956, 95 %Crl: -1.376 to -0.536).

CONCLUSIONS

Yoga, RT+AE, EX+PT, and Baduanjin have demonstrated enhanced efficacy in alleviating clinical symptoms, quality of life, depressive states, and cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia. We identified optimal overall exercise doses and provided exercise guidance recommendations for healthcare professionals.

Efficacy of family psychoeducation on drug compliance, self-esteem and caregivers' burden among selected psychiatric inpatients from a tertiary care centre, North India

BACKGROUND

Lack of awareness has alarmingly raised the proportion of drug noncompliance among psychiatric patients, which are proven worrisome not only to the patients but also to their caregivers. An individually tailored family psychoeducation will address the issue by enhancing the knowledge among patients and their caregivers.

AIM

The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of family psychoeducation on drug compliance, self-esteem, and caregiver's burden among psychotic and mood disorder patients in a selected tertiary care center, Uttarakhand, India.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental study was performed among 120 participants using total enumerative sampling in a general hospital psychiatric ward. Data were collected from patients and caregivers using the Medication Adherence Rating Scale, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and Zarit burden interview-22. The outcome measures were evaluated in the 2 and 4^th weeks, and data were analyzed using the descriptive (frequency, percentage) and inferential statistics (Friedman analysis of variance, Wilcoxon signed-rank test) using the SPSS software version 23.0.

RESULTS

The present study showed that almost 30% of patients were noncompliant with their drug regime (mean ± standard deviation, 4.23 ± 1.57), and a majority (63.33%) of them presented with a low level of self-esteem. Furthermore, 71.7% and 13.3% of caregivers experienced a moderate and severe burden. An increase in drug compliance (35%) and self-esteem (31%) and a decrease in caregivers' burden (13%) were observed after the administration of family psychoeducation (P = 0.00).

CONCLUSION

There is a great need to provide family psychoeducation on a routine basis in general hospitals. Patients with higher self-esteem will ultimately show improved social and occupational functionality resulting in satisfactory treatment compliance and decreased caregivers' burden.

Mindfulness-based psychoeducation for schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a qualitative analysis of participants' experiences

Mindfulness-based psychoeducation program (MBPP) has been proposed as a new approach to improve the overall outcomes for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, to date, limited studies have examined the participants' experiences of MBPP for schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) who underwent an 8-week MBPP with respect to their perception of the benefits and unusual challenges of mindfulness training and self-practices.

Twenty-four (n = 24) individuals with SSDs were invited to participate in an 8-week MBPP. A total of eight participants were invited for semi-structured interview one week after the final class of MBPP. The semi-structured interview was conducted in Cantonese and data were transcribed by the first author. Of the eight participants, five participants had unusual experiences and three participants had a positive experience with MBPP. They were included to provide more candid understanding on the constituents of diverse experience towards MBPP. An interview guide was developed to understand the patients' perceptions of MBPP, the challenege in self-practising mindfulness, and the changes in how they coped with their illness during and after taking part in MBPP. Qualitative data from the semi-structured interview were recorded by a research assistant and the transcripts were proof-read by the participants to ensure accuracy. The Software NVivo 12 Pro was used to manage the qualitative data from the semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis was adopted to identify the major themes from the qualitative data.

Five themes emerged: developing a state of mindfulness, empowering illness management, learning a new way to regulate emotion, encountering barriers in self-practising mindfulness and preference for bodily mindfulness.

The findings provide comprehensive knowledge and deeper insights into treatment processes of mindfulness psychoeducation as an intervention for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

IMPACT STATEMENT

This study establishes a body of knowledge regarding people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders who received mindfulness psychoeducation intervention. The results suggest that patients can develop a new way to regulate emotion and manage their illness through mindfulness psychoeducation. The perceived negative experience of some patients also warrants closer attention in mindfulness practice, especially for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Further research could focus on factors leading to the negative consequences of mindfulness practice and the ways to minimize the negative consequeces.

Effect of Group Psychoeducation on Treatment Adherence, Quality of Life and Well-Being of Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia

Psychoeducation offers a holistic approach that focuses on the philosophy of health, cooperation, coping and empowerment, but it is known that experimental studies used in psychoeducation in schizophrenia are insufficient. The study was conducted with 42 schizophrenia patients using a quasi-experimental research design. Patients were evaluated using a pretest, post-test, follow-up test, "Medication Adherence Rating Scale", "Quality of Life Scale for Schizophrenia" and "Flourishing Scale". There was a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in terms of pretest and post-test, pretest and follow-up test scores (p < 0.05). The post-test and follow-up test scores of the patients in the experimental group were determined to increase their quality of life and well-being score (p < 0.05). This study is an important contribution to the literature due to its assessment of the relationship between psychoeducation and change in treatment adherence, quality of life and levels of well-being.

[How to involve patients with schizophrenia in their treatment using psychoeducation]

Schizophrenia is characterized not only by symptoms, but also by a reduced insight that contributes to functional outcomes through a bad acceptation of the disease and a low involvement in treatment and care. Functional outcomes of schizophrenia are conditioned by the acceptance of the troubles, by the involvement in psychopharmacological treatment and in psychosocial care and by the expressed emotion level of the family. Psychoeducation improves adherence to treatment. Psychoeducation lowers relapse rate. All the patients suffering from schizophrenia and their families should benefit from psychoeducation.

Effect of Community-Based Social Skills Training and Tai-Chi Exercise on Outcomes in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia: A Randomized, One-Year Study

BACKGROUND

Antipsychotic drugs are limited in their ability to improve negative symptoms, quality of life, and medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia. The addition of nonpharmacological interventions like social skills training has a positive effect on medication adherence and decreases rehospitalization rates but is limited in improving patients' symptoms, aggressive behaviors, and quality of life. Aerobic exercise, especially Tai-chi, can potentially reduce psychopathological and negative symptoms, decrease aggressive behaviors, and improve quality of life. It is an ideal rehabilitation intervention for patients with schizophrenia. However, no study has investigated the effects of social skills training plus Tai-chi on outcomes among outpatients with schizophrenia. This study analyzes the effect of antipsychotics combined with community-based integrated interventions on outcomes of schizophrenia.

METHODS

In this study, a 24-session social skills training plus Tai-chi was used in community settings among patients with schizophrenia. A total of 244 patients were randomly assigned to medication treatment alone (MTA group) or community-based integrated intervention (CBII group), which accepted social skills training plus Tai-chi in addition to medication treatment. Generalized linear mixed models were used to evaluate the intervention effect (group effect), intervention effect over time (time effect), and interaction effect (group × time effect). t tests were used to evaluate between-group differences on clinical variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the differences between the intervention at 12 months and baseline for the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative symptoms and quality of life-social domain.

RESULTS

Compared with the MTA group, the CBII group had lower scores on PANSS (F = 17.312, p < 0.001) and negative symptoms (F = 44.909, p < 0.001), a lower risk for aggressive behavior (F = 12.382, p < 0.001), and a greater improvement in adherence to medication (F = 12.391, p < 0.001) after 1 year of intervention. The changes in PANSS total scores, negative scores, and social domain of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale-Brief version (WHOQOL-BREF) from baseline to 12 months were significant between the two groups (PANSS total score: t = 4.839, p < 0.001; negative symptoms: t = 8.250, p < 0.001, and quality of life-social domain: t = -2.171, p = 0.031). Multiple linear regression analysis also showed that the intervention was significantly effective for changes from baseline to 12 months on PANSS total score (B = 0.804, p < 0.001), negative score (B = 0.709, p < 0.001), and social domain of quality of life (B = -0.673, p = 0.044).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggested that the community-based integrated intervention such as social skills training plus Tai-chi should be part of a rehabilitation effort for patients with schizophrenia in order to improve clinical symptoms, quality of life, and medication adherence.

Adequacy of help received among individuals with severe mental disorders

Using multiple linear regression analyses and a new assessment measure, this exploratory study identifies variables associated with help adequacy of 352 individuals with severe mental disorder. Help adequacy is higher with tobacco use, psychological distress domain, having a caregiver, help form services, being older, and lower with number of needs; accommodation, food, childcare and involvement in treatment decisions domains; number of suicide attempts, legal problems in previous year, and drugs problem. Results confirm the importance of a better collaboration with relatives, healthcare and social service providers to provide more adequate and satisfactory services for severe mental disorders individuals.

Improvements in metabolic abnormalities among overweight schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients

PURPOSE

As weight-gain and metabolic abnormalities during treatment with psychotropic drugs are of great concern, we evaluated effects of psycho-education and medical monitoring on metabolic changes among severely mentally ill patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

During repeated, systematic psycho-education about general health among 66 consecutive patients diagnosed with DSM-IV-TR schizophrenia (n=33) or type-I bipolar disorder (n=33), we evaluated (at intake 1, 2, 3, and 6 months) clinical psychiatric status, treatments and doses, recorded physiological parameters, and assessed attitudes about medication.

RESULTS

At intake, patients with schizophrenia vs bipolar disorder were receiving 3-7 times more psychotropic medication, with 14% higher initial body-mass index (BMI: 29.1 vs 25.6 kg/m²), 12 times more obesity, and significantly higher serum lipid concentrations. During 6-months follow-up, among bipolar disorder patients, polytherapy and serum lipid concentrations declined more than among schizophrenia patients (e.g., total cholesterol+triglycerides, by 3.21 vs 1.75%/month). BMI remained stable. Declining lipid levels were associated with older age, bipolar disorder, being unemployed, higher antipsychotic doses, and lower initial BPRS scores (all P ≤ 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Psychotropic treatments were more complex, and metabolic measures more abnormal among bipolar disorder than schizophrenia patients. Intensive psycho-education, clinical monitoring, and encouragement of weight-control for six months were associated with improvements in metabolic measures (but not to BMI), and more realistic attitudes about medication.