Introduction
FPE (family psychoeducation) is one of the most popular approaches to the treatment of schizophrenia and reducing patients’ families’ daily burdens. The following paper is intended to summarize the two articles that describe how FPE intervention methods differ in Iraq and India. Therefore, the information below will identify whether family psychoeducation is effective in the treatment of certain mental derangements.
FPE in India
The results of the study organized by Kulhara, Chakrabarti, Avasthi, Sharma, and Sharma (2009) say that only structured and consecutive psychoeducational intervention is helpful in schizophrenic patients’ families’ education. It would be proper to say people with mental deficiencies cannot be treated without any supplementary medicaments (Mcfarlane, 2016). The research shows that both appropriate medicine and FPE can be beneficial for patients who suffer from mental deficiencies as the combination of these two methods reduces the severity of the study participants’ psychopathologies (Kulhara et al., 2009). However, there are some differences that emerged at the end of the study between the two groups of patients (because of their age). Older people did not benefit as much as younger participants did from psychoeducational treatment because the elder generations’ mental processes are not active enough anymore (comparing to the results of the younger group). Moreover, some benefits were noticed only at the end of the research period (nine months).
FPE in Iraq
The results of the research by Khoshknab, Sheikhona, Rahgouy, Rahgozar, and Sodagari (2014) demonstrated that the patients with mental deficiencies of schizophrenia (who were divided into four age groups) were much more adequate after their FPE course than before the experiment. Moreover, the caregivers who worked with patients in Iraq managed to reduce burdens on the families of the challenged people by more than one-third. The primary purpose of this study was to make the lives of families (of schizophrenic patients) easier. It would be proper to mention that the psychoeducational treatment course consisted of four sessions that were organized once a week (four weeks in total). The context of the lectures was taken from different journals and books that described various educational programs implemented in the case of schizophrenia (Khoshknab et al., 2014). However, the material was simplified for the patients to grasp it without any difficulties. The contexts of the sessions focused on the primary causes of schizophrenia and various discussions of its symptoms. “Our findings highlight the fact that a 1-month group psychoeducational program is beneficial for reducing the family burden by more than one-third” (Khoshknab et al., 2014, p. 440). The last lecture was intended to show effective methods of coping with particular mental deficiencies of the study participants.
Comparison of the Two Articles
The main differences between the two articles described above lay in the educators’ interventional methods. While the caregivers from India were giving the appropriate information to the patients’ families for nine months, their colleagues from Iraq reduced the study’s duration to four weeks. Perhaps, the last method turned out to be more efficient as the participants from Iraq received the same information volume faster. Therefore, they could not forget the main purposes and objects of the study.
Conclusion
Psychoeducational intervention is necessary to be implemented in the treatment processes of schizophrenic people from such developing states like India. It helps patients to become more conscious, whereas their families’ burdens reduce significantly. Iraq scholars’ noticed that one month of psychoeducational intensive course is enough to help the families of people with schizophrenic diagnoses to feel relief from their daily routines.
References
Khoshknab, M. F., Sheikhona, M., Rahgouy, A., Rahgozar, M., & Sodagari, F. (2014). The effects of group psychoeducational programme on family burden in caregivers of Iranian patients with schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 21(5), 438-446. Web.
Kulhara, P., Chakrabarti, S., Avasthi, A., Sharma, A., & Sharma, S. (2009). Psychoeducational intervention for caregivers of Indian patients with schizophrenia: A randomised-controlled trial. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 119(6), 472-483. Web.
Mcfarlane, W. R. (2016). Family interventions for schizophrenia and the psychoses: A review. Family Process, 55(3), 460-482. Web.