Effects of Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy (NECT) on Self-stigma in Patients With Schizophrenia

Effects of Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy (NECT) on Self-stigma in Patients With Schizophrenia: A Randomized Controlled Study

This study aims to explore the effect of narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy in improving self-stigma, self-esteem, depression and hope of patients with chronic schizophrenia.

86 participants with chronic schizophrenia in two different hospitals in northern Taiwan were recruited in this study. All participants were randomized into experimental and control groups through block randomization. After randomization, the participants in control group received routine care and the others in experimental group received Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy(NECT) which contains 20 times group meetings. The research tools include demographic data, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (ISMIS), the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC), Rosenberg self-Esteem scale (RSES), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Herth Hope Index (HHI). The questionnaires were collected for three times, including before the intervention, 12 weeks after intervention, and after the end of intervention. The collected data were analyzed by IBM SPSS 24.0 statistical software. The descriptive statistics include mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, frequency distribution, and percentages; the Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to explore the effect of Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy on self-stigma, self-esteem, depressive symptoms and hope in patients with schizophrenia after controlling demographic data.

Inclusion Criteria:

• People with Schizophrenia for more than two years.
• The age is between 20(included) and 64(included).
• Can communicate with Mandarin or Taiwanese.
• The score of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is above 24(included).
• The score of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS) is below 60(included).
• People are willing to participate in this study, can read and know the consent and can sign on the consent by their own.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Exclude people with a personality disorder, brain injury, cognitive impairment, Intellectual Developmental Disorder or substance use disorder.
• people who are not willing to sign the consent.
• people can not read.
• people can not communicate with Mandarin or Taiwanese.