Educational intervention for the relatives of schizophrenia patients in Finland

Abstract

Two methods of providing an educational intervention for families of patients with schizophrenia in Finland were compared. The aims of the intervention were to improve relatives' level of knowledge about the illness, and change the level of expressed emotion (EE), objective burden and psychological distress. Sixty-nine persons participated in the oral presentation groups comprising eight sessions and 128 persons participated in the video education comprising six sessions. The education led to significant knowledge gains and to an increase in the psychological well-being of the participants, but there were no significant changes in objective burden or EE status after intervention. Furthermore, there was only one difference between the two methods of information delivery. The participants in the video groups felt more often that the lessons were useful to them than did the participants in the oral presentation groups. The evidence suggests that brief educational intervention can yield significant benefits in meeting the needs of family members. Better designed, randomized studies investigating the efficacy of brief educational interventions are needed.