Psychoeducation in first-episode psychosis: a therapeutic process

THE importance of psychoeducational work with the relatives of patients with psychotic illness has been increasingly emphasized in recent years (Anderson et al. 1986). This has resulted partly from research showing that providing support and information for families is of value in reducing relapse rates as well as assisting relatives directly, and partly from the emergence of highly effective organizations of relatives advocating on behalf of the families of the severely mentally ill (Sokas 1986). A puzzling aspect of this development is the relative lack of interest in the psychoeducational needs of the patients themselves. As Smith et al. (1992) point out, few researches or clinicians have focused on this issue and only one controlled study has been carried out (Goldman and Quinn 1988). Eckman et al. (1992) reported the results of a controlled trial of modularized illness self-management skills training versus supportive group psychotherapy and found some advantage for the former intervention, which involved some elements of psychoeducation. However, the patients were suffering from well-established schizophrenia and had been ill for many years, so the timing of the interventions was less than optimal.