Psychoeducation (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of psychological education) is an evidence-based

therapeutic A therapy or medical treatment is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. Both words, ''treatment'' and ''therapy'', are often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx. As a rule, each therapy has indications an ...

intervention for patients and their loved ones that provides information and support to better understand and cope with illness. Psychoeducation is most often associated with serious mental illness, including

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

clinical depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

anxiety disorders Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal functions are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause phys ...

eating disorders An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

and

personality disorders Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. T ...

. The term has also been used for programs that address physical illnesses, such as

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. Psychoeducation offered to patients and family members teaches problem-solving and communication skills and provides education and resources in an empathetic and supportive environment. Results from more than 30 studies indicate psychoeducation improves family well-being, lowers rates of relapse and improves recovery.

Overview

Professionally-delivered psychoeducation is a potential resource for both individuals with

serious mental illness Serious mental illness (SMI) is characterized as any mental disorder that impairs seriously or severely from one to several significant life activities, including day-to-day functioning. Five common examples of SMI include bipolar disorders, borde ...

(SMI) and their family members. The content of psychoeducation may be flexible depending on the needs of the mentally ill person and their progression towards illness recovery or management. Some goals of psychoeducation for the individual with SMI may include increasing self-awareness of the state of their illness (such as identifying early warning signs of episodes in bipolar disorder) and increasing medication adherence. Psychoeducation may also be directed at family members, with the purpose of engaging, educating, and supporting family members so that they can better assist the person with SMI in managing their illness. This is useful as family members of individuals with SMI are often involved in initiating, advocating for, and supporting their relative's mental health care. They may be tasked with the role of case manager, medication monitor, financial planner, or housing coordinator with little prior education or preparation, thus psychoeducation is a potential way to supplement this knowledge and support. The importance of family involvement and the efficacy of family psychoeducation is recognized by best-practice guidelines for the treatment of individuals with serious mental health conditions.

History

The concept of psychoeducation was first noted in the medical literature, in an article by John E. Donley "Psychotherapy and re-education" in '' The Journal of Abnormal Psychology'', published in 1911. It wasn't until 30 years later that the first use of the word psychoeducation appeared in the medical literature in title of the book ''The psychoeducational clinic'' by Brian E. Tomlinson. New York, NY, US: MacMillan Co. This book was published in 1941. In French, the first instance of the term ''psychoéducation'' is in the thesis "''La stabilité du comportement''" published in 1962. Jeannine Guindon was a pioneer of psychoeducation in her work with disturbed children in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada, in the 1970s. The popularization and development of the term psychoeducation into its current form is widely attributed to the American researcher C.M. Anderson in 1980 in the context of the treatment of

. Her research concentrated on educating relatives concerning the

symptoms Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...

and the process of the schizophrenia. Also, her research focused on the stabilization of social authority and on the improvement in handling of the family members among themselves. Finally, C.M. Anderson's research included more effective stress management techniques. Psychoeducation in

behavior therapy Behaviour therapy or behavioural psychotherapy is a broad term referring to clinical psychotherapy that uses techniques derived from behaviourism and/or cognitive psychology. It looks at specific, learned behaviours and how the environment, or oth ...

has its origin in the patient's relearning of emotional and

social skills A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socia ...

. In the last few years increasingly systematic group programs have been developed, in order to make the knowledge more understandable to patients and their families.

Single and group

Psychoeducation can take place in one-on-one discussion or in groups and by any qualified health educator as well as health professionals such as

nurses Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

, mental health counselors,

social workers Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

occupational therapists Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's abil ...

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

s, and

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

s. In the groups several patients are informed about their illnesses at once. Also, exchanges of experience between the concerned patients and mutual support play a role in the healing process.

Brief psychoeducation

Brief psychoeducation was developed as a way of reducing the use of the time of health care worker. Brief psychoeducation (less than 10 weeks) increases compliance with the healthcare systems suggested medication. It is unclear whether it decreases

relapse In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...

though it may in the short term. There is no evidence that it reduces health care efficiency (thought studies may be underpowered). There is low-quality evidence that it may improve certain measures of social functioning such as social

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

. There is low quality data that it reduces the change of death.

References

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Bibliography

# Bäuml, Josef, et al. Psychoeducation: A Basic Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Patients With Schizophrenia and Their Families. ''Schizophrenia Bulletin''. 2006 32 (Supplement 1): S1-S9 # Hogarty, GE, Anderson, CM, Reiss, D, et al. Family psychoeducation, social skills training and maintenance chemotherapy in the aftercare treatment of schizophrenia: II. Two-year effects of a controlled study on relapse and adjustment. ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'' 1991; 48:340–347. # Chan, W.-c. S., Kua, E., Tsoi, T., Xiao, C., & Tay, P. K. C. (2012). Dementia: How to care for your loved one and yourself. A caregiver's guide. Singapore: Nu-earth.

External links

New York State Psychiatric Institute's Patient and Family Library- A Psychoeducation ProjectNew York City Voices: A Consumer-Run Psychoeducative ProjectThe Blog of Will Jiang, MLS the Former NYSPI & Columbia Psychiatry Library ChiefPepperdine , Graduate School of Education and Psychology
Social work Psychotherapy by type