The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on Improving Self-Care Skills among Women with Chronic Schizophrenia

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a chronic, debilitating disease that imposes a great care of burden on families and mental health care providers. Therefore, the issue of self-care is very important in these patients. The present research aimed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on improving self-care skills in women with chronic schizophrenia Method: Women with chronic schizophrenia were studied in two groups of intervention (N=9)and control (N=10) at Hejazi hospital in Mashhad, Iran. The intervention group received cognitive-behavioral group therapy and the control group received routine care. The self-care questionnaire and the positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) was completed pre-intervention, post-intervention and 6-months follow up.Findings: the results of Mann-Whitney U test indicated that the mean score of total self-care and general psychopathological symptoms variation in the intervention group was significantly higher than control group during pre and post-intervention stages (p = 0.001, Cohen’s d < 2). Also, there was significant higher variation during pre-intervention and 6-months follow up stages (p<0.05, Cohen s d<0.50).Conclusion: Cognitive behavioral group therapy can affect self-care skills in women with chronic schizophrenia.

Keywords:

Cognitive behavioral therapy , group therapy , self-care , chronic , schizophrenia