[Information-centered family groups for improving compliance in schizophrenic patients]

We tried to improve the compliance in the long-term treatment of schizophrenic patients by psychoeducational groups for relatives of 48 patients over the course of six months. More than 90% of the relatives requested mainly informations concerning the illness and its treatment both at the beginning and at the end of the group sessions. At the beginning only 33% of the relatives thought they could benefit from sharing their experiences with others, afterwards this rate rose to 67%. At first, 49% believed to understand the nature of schizophrenia, at the end this rate was 86%. The importance of medication implying certain side effects was accepted by about 85% before and afterwards. This good quota at the beginning of the group sessions can be explained of this high acceptance rate appears to be a direct result of the group meetings.