A Quasi Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Psycho Education Delivered by Different Health Professionals on Knowledge among Family Members of Patients with Lithium Therapy at Sneka Mind Care Centre, Thirunelveli, Tamil Nadu

Introduction: Bipdar disorder is a psychiatric disorder that causes extreme shifts in mood energy and functioning. It is characterized by episodes of mania and depression that can last from days to months and usually begins in late adolescence, but can begin in early childhood or as late as a person?s 40s and 50s. All of us experience changes in our mood day by day. Some days we might feel irritable and frustrated, other days we are happy and excited. However, individuals with bipolar disorder experience sever mood savings that impair their daily life and negatively affect their relationship (Cehassemi R.2005). Lithium has the narrow therapeutic index and many factors can upset the balance lithium concentrations that are well tole rated and produce side effects or toxicity. This is imperative that the person taking lithium can be educated about signs and symptoms of toxicity, factors that affect lithium levels how and when to obtain laboratory testing and the importance of regular communication with the prescribing physician. Proposed Topic of Research: A Quasi experimental study to assess the effectiveness of psycho education delivered by different health professionals on knowledge among family members of patients with lithium therapy at sneak mind care centre, Thirunelveli. Objectives: 1) To assess the pretest knowledge of family members regarding lithium therapy in experimental and control group. 2) To assess the posttest knowledge of family members regarding lithium therapy in experimental and control group. 3) To find out the effectiveness of psycho education on lithium therapy of family members in experimental group. 4) To compare the pretest and posttest knowledge of family members regarding lithium therapy between experimental and control group. 5) To find out the relationship between pretest knowledge of family members regarding lithium and selected demographic variables. Hypotheses: There will be a significant difference between knowledge of family members regarding lithium therapy before and after psycho education intervention programme. 1) There will be a significant difference in the knowledge gained by the family members through the psycho education delivered by different health professionals regarding lithium therapy. 2) There will be a significant association between knowledge of family members and selected demographic variables. The conceptual frame work for the present study was based on J.W. Kemy?s open system model, which guided the investigator to help the family members to gain adequate knowledge about lithium therapy. A quasi experimental design was adopted for the study the independent variable was psycho education on lithium therapy and the dependent variables was level of knowledge. The study was conducted for a period of one year. Two hundred and fifty family members of patients with lithium therapy, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, were selected for the study knowledge was assessed by structured knowledge questionnaire regarding lithium therapy. The tool was validated by experts in various field of Nursing, Medicine and Statistician. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample subjects. The sample size was estimated by power analysis. The sample size was 125 for each group (experimental and control group). The psycho education was delivered by the investigator to experimental group and for control group psycho education was delivered by ANM for 30 minutes. The investigator adhered to human right beneficence and non-malfeasance, dignity, confidentiality and justice. The major findings of the study: In the assessment of level of knowledge among family members of patient with lithium therapy in experimental group it was found that, in the pretest 96.8% family members had inadequate knowledge, 3.2% family members had moderately adequate knowledge and none of family members had adequate knowledge. In the posttest 74.4% family members had adequate knowledge and 24% family members had moderately adequate knowledge and 1.6% family members had inadequate knowledge in the experimental group. 1) While assessing the level of knowledge among family members of patient with lithium therapy in control group. In the pretest 92% of family members had inadequate knowledge and 8.0% of family members had moderately adequate knowledge and none of them had adequate knowledge. In the posttest 58.4% of family members had inadequate knowledge, 40.8% of family members had moderately adequate knowledge and 0.8% had adequate knowledge. 2) It is evident from the findings of the study that the mean score and standard deviation of pretest knowledge score was 6.2 ? 2.4 and after administration of psycho education the knowledge score was 18.2 ? 2.9. The mean difference was 12 ? 3.1 and the ?t? test value was t = 42.784 and this is greater than the table value at p less than 0.001. This reveals that there is a significance difference in pretest and post test score in experimental group. 3) The findings of the study reveals that the pretest mean and standard deviation knowledge score of family members of patient with lithium therapy in control group was 6.6 ? 2.5, the same after administration of psycho education post test score was 10.6 ? 2.2. The mean difference was 4 ? 2.4 and the ?t? test value was 19.066 and this is greater than the table value at p less than 0.001. This reveals that there is a significance difference in pretest and posttest. 4) The findings of the study show that while comparing the knowledge among family members of patients with lithium therapy in experimental group and control group. The mean and standard deviation of experimental group was 12?3.1 and control group was 4? 2.4. The mean difference was 8 and ?t? test value was t = 22.853. The mean reduction of experimental group was highly significant than the control group. 5) There is no significant association between pretest level of knowledge among family members of patient with lithium therapy and selected demographic variables such as age, sex, type of relationship, education, monthly income, occupation and marital status except religion and type of family in experimental group. 6) There is no significant association between pretest level of knowledge among family members of patient with lithium therapy and selected demographic variable such as age, sex, type of relationship with patient, education, monthly income, occupation, marital status, religion and type of family in control group.