Schulze Mönking H
St.-Rochus-Hospital Telgte, Germany.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 1994 May;29(3):149-54. doi: 10.1007/BF00796496.
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.
近年来，精神分裂症患者亲属自助组织在德国已成为一个重要机构。组织成员的奉献精神常常令人印象深刻，但一项调查此类组织活动影响的实证研究尚未发表。明斯特家庭研究促成了初步的研究方法，这是一项前瞻性评估研究，旨在记录亲属自助对精神分裂症患者的影响。经过1年的治疗阶段后，成立了两个亲属自助组织，并对其进行了为期2年的跟踪。研究表明，情感表达（EE）水平高的重症男性精神病患者的亲属最有可能加入自助组织。在2年的随访期内，与未参与自助的亲属组成对照组的病情相当的患者相比，这些患者有更有利的发展趋势。然而，更显著的是参与其中的亲属的积极发展，他们的EE水平保持不变，但社交接触更多，身体不适更少。然而，在鼓励成立此类自助组织时，必须记住，只有一小部分亲属能够被激励或有能力长期积极参与。
