Effects of health education on rehabilitation of first episode schizophrenia during the recovery period

Abstract

Objective To investigate the role of health education in the rehabilitation ofschizophrenia patients during recovery period. Methods 60 schizophrenia patients were randomly dividedinto two groups, with 30 eases in the observation group and 30 cases in the control group. All the patientshad accepted the treatment of pharmaceuticals before they entered the respective group and had a stablestatus of disease. The patients in the observation group were given health education while the patients in thecontrol group only given general instruction on sanitation issues. The study lasted 12 woeks. And eachevaluation was conducted at the time of entering the groups, and at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after having enteredthe groups, with The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Nurses' Observation Scale for InpatientEvaluation (NOSIE). Results The BPRS scores for the observation group at the end of 8 weeks and of 12weeks are significantly lower than those of the control group. The NOSIE scores for the observation group atthe end of 4 weeks showed that the patients' interest to society, personal hygiene, factors of mental diseasesand etc. had significant differences compared to those of the patients in the control group. At the end of the8th week, the scores for the rest factors between the two groups had a significant difference. ConclusionsHealth education can improve the treatment effectiveness in the rehabilitation of schizophrenia patients duringrecovery period. Key words: Health education; Schizophrenia