The effect of solution focused group psychoeducation applied to schizophrenia patients on self-esteem, perception of subjective recovery and internalized stigmatization

This study aimed to assess the impact of solution-focused group psychoeducation applied to schizophrenia patients on self-esteem, subjective recovery perception and internalized stigma. We conducted the study using an experimental design with pretest-posttest randomized control between September and November 2020. The sample of the study comprised a total of 39 schizophrenia patients (intervention group 20 – control group 19) who were registered to Pelitköy Mental Health Center in Samsun province and met the inclusion criteria. In the intervention group we applied "Solution-focused Group Psychoeducation Program" in a total of six sessions which lasted approximately 90 minutes one day a week. In the intervention and control group we applied "Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale", "Subjective Recovery Assessment Scale" and "Internalized Stigma in Mental Illnesses Scale" before and after the psychoeducation. In data evaluation we used the Shapiro-Wilk, the t-test, the Mann-Whitney U Test and the Paired Samples Wilcoxon Test, the Chi-square Test, the Kendall's W Coefficient of Concordance and the Regression Analysis. We examined the correlation between the variables via the Spearman's correlation analysis. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of sociodemographic characteristics between the patients in the intervention and control groups participating in the study (p>0.05). We found no statistically significant difference between the pretest RSES, SubRAS and ISMI scores of the intervention and control group patients (p>0.05). After the education the ISMI score decreased in the intervention group (p<0.001) and increased in the control group (p=0.599). In the measurements after the education we determined that the RSES scores were significantly lower in the intervention group compared to the control group (Z=-3.466, p=0.001). After the education we found a statistically significant difference in the SubRAS scores of the intervention group compared to before the education and the control group (Z=-2.374; p=0.018). We determined that the posttest SubRAS scores of the intervention group were higher than the pretest scores (p=0.018), while the scores of the control group remained the same (Z=-0.632, p=0.527). As a result of a statistical analysis conducted to determine the correlation of change between variables in the course of time we found a highly significant correlation between the pretest RSES and ISMI scores in a positive direction (r=0.721, p<0.001). We found a moderately significant correlation between the posttest SubRAS and ISMIS scores in a negative direction (r=-0.615, p=0.004). In the study we determined that "Solution-focused Group Psychoeducation Program" increases the self-respect level and subjective recovery perception and decreases the internalized stigma intensity of patients