A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Psychoeducation on Knowledge and Attitude towards Electroconvulsive Therapy among the Care Givers of Mentally Ill Patients at Gauhati Medical College & Hosptital, Guwahati, Assam

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the oldest treatments in psychiatry, which has survived the test of time. Most of the studies noted that patients and their relatives had many misconceptions as well as a negative attitude towards the use of ECT. Fewer studies have evaluated the knowledge and attitude concerning ECT among mentally ill patients who have not received ECT and their relatives. This is an important group not only because they might be potential candidates for ECT, but they may also influence perception of other patients regarding ECT. The objectives of the study is to find out the effectiveness of psychoeducation on knowledge and attitude towards Electroconvulsive Therapy among the care givers of mentally ill patients The study adopted a quantitative study, pre-experimental research design (one group pre test and post test) research design, 60 samples were selected by using convenience sampling technique. Self-structured knowledge questionnaire and 5point Likert scale were used to assess knowledge and attitude towards Electroconvulsive therapy. The results revealed that before psychoeducation majority 37(61.7%) of participants had inadequate knowledge whereas after psychoeducation majority 35(58.3%) of participants had adequate knowledge towards electroconvulsive therapy. Findings also showed that before psychoeducation mean knowledge score was 10.08?3.326 and after psychoeducation mean knowledge score was 20.17?4.934 with mean difference was 10.08. The results also revealed that before psychoeducation majority 33(55%) of participants had unfavorable attitude while after psychoeducation majority 38(63.3%) of participants had favorable attitude towards electro convulsive therapy. Findings also showed that before psychoeducation mean attitude score was 26.12?6.184 and after psychoeducation mean attitude score was 53.37?11.17 with mean difference was 27.25. The study concluded that there is a significance difference between the pre test and post test levels of knowledge and attitude towards ECT among caregivers of mentally ill patients indicated that the given Psychoeducation was effective. And there is significance association between sex, area of residence, duration of stay with patient with selected demographic variables.