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How does family intervention improve the outcome of people with schizophrenia?

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

There is strong evidence of the efficacy of family psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia, but evidence of the role played by the attitudes of relatives in the therapeutic process is lacking.

Method

To study the effect of a family intervention on family attitudes and to analyse their mediating role in the therapeutic process 50 patients with schizophrenia and their key relatives undergoing a trial on the efficacy of a family psychosocial intervention were studied by means of the Affective Style Coding System, the Scale of Empathy, and the Relational Control Coding System. Specific statistical methods were used to determine the nature of the relationship of the relatives’ attitudes to the outcome of family intervention.

Results

Family psychosocial intervention was associated with a reduction in relatives’ guilt induction and dominance and an improvement in empathy. Empathy and lack of dominance were identified as independent mediators of the effect of family psychosocial intervention. The change in empathy and dominance during the first 9 months of the intervention predicted the outcome in the following 15 months.

Conclusion

Relatives’ empathy and lack of dominance are mediators of the beneficial effect of family psychosocial intervention on patient’s outcome.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by project grant 011010 from Fundació La Marató de TV3. This study was supported by the Associació Valenciana de Docència i Investigació en Salut Mental.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dpto. de Enfermería Comunitaria, Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, e Historia de la Ciencia, Universidad de Alacant, Campus de Sant Vicent del Raspeig, Apdo. 99, 03080, Alacant, Spain

    Manuel Girón

  2. University Miguel Hernández, Alacant, Spain

    Francisco Nova-Fernández

  3. Petrer Mental Health Centre, Petrer, Spain

    Sonia Mañá-Alvarenga

  4. Unidad de Investigación de Análisis de la Mortalidad y Estadísticas Sanitarias, Dpto. de Enfermería Comunitaria, Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, e Historia de la Ciencia, Universidad de Alicante, Campus de San Vicente del Raspeig, Apdo. 99, 03080, Alicante, Spain

    Andreu Nolasco

  5. Ciutat Jardí Mental Health Centre, Alacant, Spain

    Antonia Molina-Habas

  6. Florida-Babel Mental Health Centre, Alacant, Spain

    Antonio Fernández-Yañez

  7. The Teaching Unit of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos & Manuel Gómez-Beneyto

  8. CIBERSAM, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

    Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos & Manuel Gómez-Beneyto

Authors
  1. Manuel Girón
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  2. Francisco Nova-Fernández
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  3. Sonia Mañá-Alvarenga
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  4. Andreu Nolasco
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  5. Antonia Molina-Habas
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  6. Antonio Fernández-Yañez
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  7. Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos
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  8. Manuel Gómez-Beneyto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel Girón.

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Girón, M., Nova-Fernández, F., Mañá-Alvarenga, S. et al. How does family intervention improve the outcome of people with schizophrenia?. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 50, 379–387 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0942-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0942-9

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