61 THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION ON THE RECOVERY OF SOCIAL FUNCTION IN PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS
Authors: Yang Ying , Zhao* Mingxu 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
In the field of mental disorders, early intervention is widely recognized as an important strategy to improve long-term outcomes and social functioning of patients. Research shows that people with psychosis often face a significant decline in social functioning after experiencing an episode, affecting their quality of life and social adjustment. As an effective means of early intervention, psychological education intervention has attracted more and more researchers’ attention in recent years. Psychological education can not only help patients and their families understand the nature of the disease and treatment options, but also enhance patients’ coping ability and social skills, and provide support for the recovery of their social functions. However, there is still a lack of systematic empirical research on the specific effects of psychoeducational intervention on the recovery of social function in psychiatric patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early psychoeducational intervention on the recovery of social function in psychiatric patients and to provide empirical support for future treatment programs.

Methods
A randomized controlled trial design was used to recruit 120 patients diagnosed with psychosis, who were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received three months of psychological education intervention, including pathological knowledge teaching, coping skills training and social ability improvement. The control group received only the usual drug treatment. Before the study began, all participants completed an assessment questionnaire on social functioning, covering multiple dimensions of social interaction, occupational functioning, and daily life. At the end of the intervention, the participants completed the same assessments again to assess changes in social functioning. In order to ensure the reliability of the data, a mixture of required evaluation tools was used during the study, and the statistical data were rigorously analyzed. SPSS software was used for data processing, and T-test and ANOVA were applied to compare the differences between the two groups.

Results
The results showed that the social functioning scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group after the intervention (P&lt;0.001). Specifically, the improvement of social communication ability is the most obvious, followed by occupational function and daily life ability. In addition, the experimental group showed significant improvement in the scores after the intervention, especially in social skills and coping skills (P&lt;0.01), while the control group showed no significant change in these dimensions (P&gt;0.05). Overall, early psycho-educational intervention significantly promoted the recovery of social function in psychiatric patients.

Discussion
Studies have shown that early psychoeducational intervention has a significant positive impact on the recovery of social function in patients with psychosis. The results not only support the importance of psychological education in the field of mental health, but also provide a reference for future clinical practice. By improving patients’ pathological cognition and social ability, psychological education not only helps patients better cope with mental illness, but also provides strong support for their social reintegration.