Self-help groups for families of schizophrenic patients: formation, development and therapeutic impact.

In recent years, self-help groups for relatives of schizophrenic patients have become a vital organization in Germany. The commitment of group members is often impressive, but an empirical study investigating the impact of the activity in such groups has yet to be published. An initial approach was made possible by the Münster Families Study, a prospective evaluation study designed to register the impact of relatives' self-help schizophrenic patients. Following a 1-year therapeutic phase, two relatives' self-help groups were formed; these were followed for 2 years. The study showed that relatives of severely mentally ill male patients with high levels of expressed emotion (EE) were most likely to join self-help groups. In the 2-year follow-up period, there was a tendency towards a more favourable development among these patients than among the comparably ill patients forming a control group, whose relatives were not involved in self-help. What was more marked, however, was the positive development among involved relatives, whose EE levels remained unchanged but who displayed higher levels of social contacts and fewer physical complaints. When encouraging the formation of such self-help groups, however, it has to be borne in mind that only a small proportion of relatives can be motivated to, or are capable of, active long-term involvement.