Effectiveness of Nursing Intervention Program Based on Emotional Awareness and Emotion Regulation on the Social Functioning of Patients with schizophrenia

Background: Patients with schizophrenia have poorer social and vocational functioning, emotional dysregulation, cognitive and executive function deficits, which place a heavy strain on the person and the community. Aim: explore the effectiveness of the nursing intervention program based on emotional awareness and emotion regulation on the social functioning of patients with schizophrenia. Design: A quasi-experimental design, one group (pre and post-test) was utilized. Subjects: A purposive sample of 60 patients with schizophrenia. Study setting: Inpatient psychiatric wards at El-Azazi Hospital for Mental Health and Addiction Management in Abo Hamad City, Sharqia Governorate, Egypt. Tools: Demographic and clinical data questionnaire of schizophrenic patients, Toronto Alexithymia scale, emotion regulation questionnaire, and social function questionnaire. Results: The nursing intervention program based on emotional awareness and regulation had a statistically significant effect (P = 0.0001) on social functioning among studied patients with schizophrenia. Conclusion: The nursing intervention program based on emotional awareness and regulation has a great effect in enhancing social functioning, raising emotional awareness and regulation as well as lowering alexithymia levels in studied schizophrenic patients. Recommendation: Emotional awareness and regulation intervention nursing program should be given to all schizophrenic patients to improve their social functioning, enhance emotional awareness, regulation and reduce their levels of alexithymia.