THE EFFECT OF THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP IN SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS

One of the important goals during treatment of schizophrenic patients is acceptance of treatment by patients. Correct use of medication has an important role in the treatment of these patients which can result in decreasing of the hospitalization and cost of treatment. The goal of this research was to evaluate the effect of relationship therapy of nurses on the acceptance of medication by schizophrenic patients. This research is a random clinical trial which includes control and study group. 80 schizophrenic patients participated in this study: 40 patients in the study group, and 40 patients in the control group. Data collecting tools included 3 parts, individual’ssocial characteristics, medicine check out list, and health belief model. After taking pretest, patients who were eligible for this study were divided randomly into study and control groups. The study group members participated in 7-10 session of relationship therapy. Both groups took a posttest one week after the last session. We used descriptive and interpretive statistics (paired t-test) to analyze our findings. The results showed that social demographic differences between the two groups was not significant (P> 0.05). The presence of the patient to eat the medicine, taking the medicine from a nurse and ingesting it, and medication compliance in the pre-test scores between the two groups was not significant (P> 0.05), but it increased in the study group rather than the control group which was significant (P <0.05). Also the two groups didn’t show any significant difference comparing before and after the study, while the mean score of the study group increased comparing the control group (P <0.05). Results of this research can help nurses to find ways to increase acceptance of medication by patients, therefore it can increase the rate of successful treatment of the disease.