A Review on Psychoeducation in Psychiatric Disorder

Psychoeducation has been emerged as an indispensable mode of treatment in modern day psychiatric treatment. Most mental health clinicians and researchers are in favour of adding psychoeducation as the adjunct to strengthen the other forms of psychiatric treatment because psychoeducation has the potentialities to help the patients and family members know about their creative and positive role in the treatment and enhance their ability to deal with daily stress. Psychoeducation is an adjunctive approach which has the immense potentialities to reduce the relapse as well as rehospitalization rates and mental health costs in relapsing psychiatric disorders. Psychoeducation is understood as systematic, structured, didactic information on the illness and its treatment options and psychoeducation aims to enable patients as well as family membersto cope with the illness. Modern treatment protocols cite psychoeducation as an indispensable part of psychiatric treatment. Psychoeducation for patients with severe and relapsing mental disorder improves the understanding of mental illness, increases the quality of life, and can reduce relapse rates. Family psychoeducation as well has become a strongly supported evidence-based practice in the treatment of chronic and relapsing mental disorders. Psychoeducation in families of patients with such disorders can reduce the relapse rates of these patients, positively influence the course of the patient's illness, and help the families and patients to better cope with the mental illness (Rummel-Kluge et al., 2006). In our review paper we present evidence supporting the efficacy of psychoeducation, the topics to be addressed in a psychoeducational program and its postulated mechanisms of action as well as side-effects.