[Psychoeducational group for patients with depression and their families]

Psychoeducation is an important part in the therapy of mental diseases. Until now there is little experience with patients and their family members attending the same psychoeducational group. We work with a psychoeducational group for depressed patients and their families. The aims are support and relief for the family, information about the affective disorder and acquisition of skills to improve the relationship between patients and family members. Every three months we start a new group with three sessions. At the first session we give information about symptoms, the disease and prognosis. At the second meeting we discuss the causes and how to deal with the disorder. The contents of the last session are the treatment and recidive prophylaxis. In the time from winter 1998 to spring 2000 six different groups have taken place with 101 patients and family members as participants. There was a high continuity of participation and a positive feed-back of the members. We can recommend this kind of psychoeducational group for other psychiatric hospitals. Patients and their family members can come to terms with this illness and become experts on depression.