The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on Improving Self-Care Skills among Women with Chronic Schizophrenia

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a chronic, debilitating disease that imposes a great care of burden on families and mental health care providers. Therefore, the issue of self-care is very important in these patients. The present research aimed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on improving self-care skills in women with chronic schizophrenia Method: Women with chronic schizophrenia were studied in two groups of intervention (N=9) and control (N=10) at Hejazi hospital in Mashhad, Iran. The intervention group received cognitivebehavioral group therapy and the control group received routine care. The self-care questionnaire and the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) was completed pre-intervention, post-intervention and 6-months follow up. Results: The results of Mann-Whitney U test indicated that the mean score of total self-care and general psychopathological symptoms variation in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group during pre and post-intervention stages (p = 0.001, Cohen’s d < 2). Also, there was significant higher variation during pre-intervention and 6-months follow up stages (p<0.05, Cohen's d<0.50). Conclusion: Cognitive behavioral group therapy can affect self-care skills in women with chronic schizophrenia. Keywords: