Schizophrenia: a five-year follow-up of patient outcome following psycho-education for caregivers

Abstract

Introduction: There is evidence that psycho-education courses for caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia improve the short-term outcome of the condition. However, most of the outcome studies are limited to two-year follow-up.

Materials and methods: This study is a five-year retrospective case-control follow-up of an original cohort of 63 patients and their 101 caregivers who completed a six-week Caregiver Psycho-education Programme (CPP) for schizophrenia and psychosis between 2002 and 2005, and 60 controls, matched for age, gender and severity of their psychotic illness.

Results: Patients whose caregivers learned more from the six-week psycho-education course had a significantly longer time to relapse (P = 0.04) and a significantly shorter length of stay during their first relapse (P < 0.05). Patients whose caregivers attended the six-week psycho-education course (regardless of how much the caregivers learned) had a significantly better outcome than controls. This included a significantly smaller number of relapses (P < 0.01), longer time to relapse (P < 0.01), shorter length of stay during their first relapse (P < 0.01) and smaller number of bed days over five years (P < 0.01). The odds ratio of controls relapsing, although insignificant at one year, was 4.13 (1.85-9.21) at five years. Outcome was not affected by either the numbers of caregivers attending for each patient, or caregiver gender.

Discussion and conclusions: This study, which is among the first to examine outcome over five years, supports the efficacy of psycho-education for caregivers in improving outcome for patients. Caregivers should be encouraged to take up psycho-education where it is available.