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Evaluation of Ongoing Participation of People with Schizophrenia in a Mutual Support Group as a Complementary Intervention to Outpatient Psychiatric Treatment

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Abstract

This study aims to evaluate a group of people with schizophrenia undergoing outpatient treatment and who participate in a mutual support intervention, compared to another group of people with the same diagnosis, but attending only the usual outpatient treatment. This is a prospective study, with two measurements between six months. The mutual support group was initially composed of 16 people and the treatment as usual group was composed of 15 people. Clinical (medication adherence and functioning) and Recovery (hope, well-being, recovery and internalized stigma) outcomes were assessed. Nonparametric tests were used to verify differences in measurements between groups and between two moments. A higher level of internalized stigma and a decrease in the adherence to drug treatment in the treatment as usual group were verified. When comparing the pre-post difference between groups, there was a greater increase in adherence to drug treatment in the mutual support group. Our data point to more favorable results in the mutual support group, showing that ongoing participation in these groups is an important tool for the recovery process and for the treatment itself.

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Data Availability

The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Cinthia Hiroko Higuchi, for supporting the data tabulation in the database, and to nurse Eliane Cristina Almeida Costa, for the indication of patients of the treatment as usual group.

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—Brazil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Clinical Neurosciences (LiNC), Schizophrenia Program (Proesq), Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, R. Maj. Maragliano, 241 - Vila Mariana, São Paulo, SP, CEP 04017-030, Brazil

    José Alberto Orsi, Fernando Rocha Loures Malinowski, Simão Kagan, Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan & Ary Gadelha

  2. Brazilian Schizophrenia Association (ABRE), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    José Alberto Orsi & Cecília Cruz Villares

  3. Formerly, Yale University School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Richard Weingarten

  4. NOOS Institute, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Cecília Cruz Villares

  5. Department of Public Health, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis, Brazil

    Walter Ferreira de Oliveira

  6. Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei (UFSJ), São João del-Rei, Brazil

    Mário César Rezende Andrade

Authors
  1. José Alberto Orsi
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  2. Fernando Rocha Loures Malinowski
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  3. Simão Kagan
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  6. Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan
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  7. Walter Ferreira de Oliveira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Alberto Orsi.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

The project was approved by an Ethics Committee on Human Research (protocol number: 3.225.681), with all participants providing informed consent.

Consent to Participate

All participants completed written informed consent.

Conflict of Interest

RAB has received honoraria for speaking and chairing engagements from Janssen, Torrent, Ache and Sanofi-Aventis outside this manuscript. He has also received personal fees and non-financial support from Janssen, personal fees from Pfizer, Torrent and Sanofi-Aventis outside this manuscript. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Orsi, J.A., Malinowski, F.R.L., Kagan, S. et al. Evaluation of Ongoing Participation of People with Schizophrenia in a Mutual Support Group as a Complementary Intervention to Outpatient Psychiatric Treatment. Psychiatr Q 92, 1283–1296 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-021-09893-z

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