Effect of psycho-educational program on positive, negative symptoms and impulsivity among schizophrenic patients
Ahmed S Mohamed, Nadia E Sayied, Safaa Mohamed Zaki and Amany A Mohamed
Background: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that influences a person's perceptions, thoughts, and actions.
Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the effect of psycho-educational program on positive negative symptoms and impulsivity among schizophrenic patients.
Study design: A quasi-experimental research design was used.
Setting: This study was conducted at Minia Psychiatric Health and Addiction Treatment Hospital.
Subject: A purposive sample of 40 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia had been included in the study as a study group and 40 patients as the control group.
Tools: The first tool is an interviewing questionnaire to collect socio-demographic and clinical data questionnaire, and the second tool is the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), which is a rating scale used to assess the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia; the third tool is Barrat Impulsivity Scale to assess impulse-control disorder or pathological impulsivity.
Results: Less than a fifth of studied patients had low positive and negative syndrome compared to all at post-test and the majority at follow-up. Also, the minority of the studied patients had low impulsivity compared to all at post-test and the majority at follow up. There was a positive correlation between the positive-negative syndrome and impulsivity.
Conclusion: There was a significant improvement in the studied patient's positive and negative symptoms and in the level of impulsivity in the post-psycho-educational program compared to pre-psycho-educational.
Recommendations: Continuous provision of psycho-educational program should be developed in all psychiatric departments and social contexts to improve learning skills, maintain the improvement in social functioning among persons with schizophrenia, and decrease positive and negative symptoms. Continuous provision of physical activity to decrease impulsivity.
Ahmed S Mohamed, Nadia E Sayied, Safaa Mohamed Zaki, Amany A Mohamed. Effect of psycho-educational program on positive, negative symptoms and impulsivity among schizophrenic patients. Int J Adv Psychiatric Nurs 2024;6(1):24-35. DOI: 10.33545/26641348.2024.v6.i1a.143