Provision of group psychoeducation for relatives of persons in inpatient depression treatment – a cross-sectional survey of acute care hospitals in Germany

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Mathias Berger¹  Lars P Hölzel¹  Fabian Frank²  Christine Rummel-Kluge³  Eva M Bitzer⁴ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Hauptstraße 5, D-79104, Freiburg, Germany;Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Hauptstraße 5, D-79104, Freiburg, Germany;Department of Public Health and Health Education, University of Education Freiburg, Kunzenweg 21, D-79117, Freiburg, Germany;Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Leipzig, Semmelweisstraße 10, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany;Department of Public Health and Health Education, University of Education Freiburg, Kunzenweg 21, D-79117, Freiburg, Germany;

关键词: Psychoeducation;    Relatives;    Family;    Depressive disorders;    Inpatient treatment;    Germany;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-14-143

 received in 2014-02-19, accepted in 2014-05-13,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDepressive disorders are often recurrent and place a high burden on patients and their relatives. Psychoeducational groups for relatives may reduce relatives’ burden, help prevent relapses in patients, and are recommended by the German “National Disease Management Guideline Unipolar Depression”. Since there is limited knowledge on the provision of psychoeducational groups for relatives of persons in inpatient depression treatment, we conducted a survey among acute care hospitals in Germany.MethodsWe conducted a two-step cross-sectional survey. Step I consisted of a questionnaire asking the heads of all psychiatric/psychosomatic acute care hospitals in Germany (N = 512) whether psychoeducational groups for relatives were provided within depression treatment, and if not, the reasons for not implementing them. In group offering hospitals the person responsible for conducting psychoeducational groups received a detailed questionnaire on intervention characteristics (step II). We performed descriptive data analysis.ResultsThe response rate was 50.2% (N = 257) in step I and 58.4% in step II (N = 45). 35.4% of the responding hospitals offered psychoeducational groups for relatives of patients with depressive disorders. According to the estimates of the respondents, relatives of about one in five patients took part in psychoeducational groups in 2011. Groups were mostly provided by two moderators (62.2%) as continuous groups (77.8%), without patients’ participation (77.8%), with up to ten participants (65.9%), consisting of four or fewer sessions (51.5%) which lasted between one and one and a half hours each (77.8%). The moderators in charge were mostly psychologists (43.9%) or physicians (26.8%). Approximately one third used published manuals. Reasons for not conducting such psychoeducational groups were lack of manpower (60.1%), time (44.9%) and financial constraints (24.1%). 25.3% mentioned adequate concepts of intervention as a required condition for initiating such groups.ConclusionsOnly a small proportion of relatives of patients with depressive disorders participated in psychoeducational groups in 2011 in Germany. Mostly short interventions were favoured and main implementation barriers were scarce resources. Brief interventions that fit with healthcare routine should be developed and tested within randomised controlled trials. This could promote the provision of psychoeducational groups for relatives as evidence-based practice in inpatient depression treatment in Germany.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Frank et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014