Relapse prevention is an essential component in sustaining positive treatment outcomes.
The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of a relapse prevention intervention on the ability of patients and their primary caregivers to self-detect and manage early warning signs of relapse, and its impact on relapse rate among patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Quasi-experimental design; one group posttest only, repeated measure time-series design was employed. A total of 40 patients and their primary caregivers represented the sample in this study.
The statistical analysis revealed that the effect of relapse prevention intervention on patients and their primary caregivers' ability to self-detect severity and manage early warning signs of relapse has sustainable and positive effect on patients and their primary caregivers from T1 to T3 (patients, M = 9.0-9.3; caregivers, M = 9.7-9.9). Also, positive effect of intervention detected on abilities of patients and primary caregivers to manage EWS from T1 to T3 (patients, M = 35-36.0; caregivers, M = 39.7-38.1). The analysis also showed a low relapse rate (14.9%).
The study showed that relapse prevention interventions is effective and applicable approach that psychiatric nurses can use to ensure sustainable positive outcomes of psychiatric healthcare among patients with schizophrenia.