Impact of Psychoeducation Applied to The Spouses of Bipolar Patients on Their Emotional Expression, Stigmatization, and Loneliness Levels

Year 2024, Volume: 10 Issue: 3, 239 - 254, 31.08.2024

Hanife Kocakaya , Kübra Arslan

https://doi.org/10.19127/mbsjohs.1514532

Abstract

Objective: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious burden for patients and family members due to recurrent mood episodes, hospitalizations, and loss of productivity. The goal of this study is to examine how psychoeducation affected the caregivers of bipolar patients' levels of emotional expression, stigmatization, loneliness, and mood symptoms.
Method: This research is a quasi-experimental intervention study applied as a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study included 20 patients with bipolar diagnosis and 20 caregiver spouses who were followed up in our outpatient clinic. Participants were divided into 2 groups as study and control group. The spouses in the control group were interviewed only to evaluate their situation. The study group received a 6-session (15 hours) psychoeducation intervention. We administered the Emotion Expression Scale (EES), Self-Stigma Inventory for Families(SSI-F), UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS), and DASS-21 Scale to the spouses of bipolar patients in the study and control groups before and after the psychoeducation program
Results: The mean age of the spouses in the study group was 43.4±7.04 years, the mean age of the spouses in the control group was 39±8.29 years and all of them were female. There was no significant difference between the mean scores of the SSI-F, DASS-21 and EES scales of the spouses in the study and control groups before the training (p>0.05). After the psychoeducation program was applied to the spouses in the intervention group, a significant decrease was observed in the SSI-F, EES, and DASS-21 scores (p<0.001, p<0.001, p=002, p=001, respectively). Although there was a decrease in UCLA-AS scores, it was not significant (p=.061)
Conclusion: Our study observed a significant decrease in the stigmatization, emotional expression, depression, and anxiety scores of the patients' spouses who participated in the intervention. Based on this result, it may be recommended to continue psychoeducation systematically in clinical practice.
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Keywords

stigmatization, emotional expression, loneliness, stress, depression, bipolar disorder

Bipolar hastaların eşlerine uygulanan psikoeğitimin eşlerin duygu dışavurum, damgalanma ve yalnızlık düzeylerine etkisi

Abstract

Amaç: Bipolar bozukluk (BB), tekrarlayan ruh hali atakları, hastane yatışları ve üretkenlik kaybı nedeniyle hastalar ve aile üyeleri için ciddi düzeyde yüktür. Bu çalışmada, bipolar hastalara bakım verenlere uygulanan psikoeğitimin duygu dışavurum, damgalanma, yalnızlık ve duygudurum belirtileri düzeylerine etkisinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır.
Gereç ve Yöntem: Araştırmamız kontrol gruplu ön test-son test tasarım olarak yapılmış yarı-deneysel tipte bir müdahale çalışmasıdır. Araştırmaya polikliniğimizde takipleri yapılan 20 bipolar tanılı hasta ve 20 bakım veren eş dahil edildi. Katılımcılar çalışma ve kontrol grubu olmak üzere 2 gruba ayrıldı. Kontrol grubunda yer alan eşler ile sadece durumlarını değerlendirmeye yönelik görüşmeler yapıldı. Çalışma grubuna ise 6 oturumluk (15 saat) psikoeğitim müdahalesi uygulandı. Araştırmamızın çalışma ve kontrol grubunda yer alan bipolar hastaların eşlerine psikoeğitim programı öncesi ve sonrası olmak üzere Duygu Dışavurum Ölçeği (DDÖ), Kendini Damgalama Ölçeği-Aile (KDÖ-A), UCLA Yalnızlık Ölçeği (UCLA-YÖ ve DASS-21 Ölçeği uygulandı.
Bulgular: Araştırmamızın çalışma grubunda yer alan eşlerin yaş ortalaması 43.4±7.04 yıl, kontrol grubunda yer alan eşlerin yaş ortalaması 39±8.29 yıl ve tamamı kadın idi. Çalışma ve kontrol gruplarındaki eşlerin eğitim öncesi SSI-F, EES ve DASS-21 ölçeği puan ortalamaları arasında anlamlı bir fark yoktu (p>0.05). Müdahale grubunda yer alan eşlere uygulana psikoeğitim programı sonrası SSI-F, EES, DASS-21 ölçek puanlarında anlamlı düşme görülmüştür (p<0.001, p<0.001, p=002, p=001, sırasıyla). Ancak, UCLA-YÖ puanlarında düşme olmakla birlikte anlamlı değildir (p=.061).
Sonuç: çalışma grubu bakım vericilerinin uygulanan psikoeğitim sonrası damgalanma, duygu dışavurumu, depresyon ve anksiyete puanlarında anlamlı bir düşüş olduğu görülmüştür. Ancak, yalnızlık duygusu puanında düşme olsa da anlamlı olmadığı görülmüştür. Bu sonuca göre klinik uygulamalarda sistemli olarak psikoeğitimlerin sürdürülmesi önerilebilir.

Keywords

Bipolar bozukluk, damgalanma, duygu dışavurum, yalnızlık, stres, depresyon, anksiyete

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