The Effect of Yalom’s Supportive Group Psychotherapy on Hope Among Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Hope assists patients with Schizophrenia to lead meaningful lives. Hope helps strengthen the patients’ willpower in order to cope with life challenges and adapt themselves in society. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the effect of Yalom’s supportive group psychotherapy on hope among patients with schizophrenia. The sample consisted of 24 patients with schizophrenia who met the inclusion criteria. They were randomly assigned into either the experimental or control groups (n = 12 in each group). Patients in the experimental group participated in the Yalom’s supportive group psychotherapy and attended 2 sessions a week over a 4-week period. Each session took about 60 to 90 minutes. Patients in the control group received routine care in the same clinical setting. The Herth Hope Index scale was employed to measure hope at pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up time points. This scale yielded a Cronbach alpha of .81. Descriptive statistics, t-test, two-way analysis of variance with repeated measure, and Bonferroni method for pairwise comparison were employed to analyze the data. The results showed that the mean scores for hope in the experimental group at the post-test and one-month follow-up time points were significantly different from the control group, F(1, 22) = 8514.37, p< .001. In the experimental group, the mean scores for hope at the pre-test time point (M = 32.17, SD = 1.75) were different from the post-test (M = 38.33; SD = 1.37) and one-month follow-up (M = 40.67, SD = 1.78) time points, which is statistically significant, F(2, 22) = 150.74, p< .001. The study’s findings suggest that the Yalom’s supportive group psychotherapy can increase hope among patients with schizophrenia. Therefore, nurses and health care providers should learn and apply this program to enhance hope among patients with schizophrenia.