Effect of emotional awareness skills training on emotional awareness and communication skills in patients with schizophrenia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Published in: Archives of psychiatric nursing Vol. 38; pp. 14 - 20
• Main Authors: Uzun, Gülten, Lok, Neslihan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.2022
• Subjects: Adult; Affective Symptoms - psychology; Communication; Communication skills; Emotional awareness training; Emotions; Humans; Psychiatric nursing; Schizophrenia; Psychiatric nursing; Schizophrenia; Emotional awareness training; Communication skills
• ISSN: 0883-9417; 1532-8228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apnu.2022.01.005

This study was conducted to examine the effect of emotional awareness skills training on emotional awareness and communication skills in patients with schizophrenia. This randomized controlled trial was conducted with 44 patients with schizophrenia (22 in the intervention group and 22 in the control group) registered at a community mental health center. The personal information form, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and communication skills scale-adult form were used to collect patient data. The emotional awareness skills training was implemented once a week for 8 weeks. After the training, the mean scores of the “Difficulty Identifying Feelings” and “Difficulty Describing Feelings” subscales of TAS-20 decreased and the mean scores of the communication skills scale-adult form increased in the intervention group; the difference between the groups was statistically significant. While there was no difference between the groups in the initial measurements, a significant difference was found between the mean scores of “Difficulty Identifying Feelings” and “Difficulty Describing Feelings” in the intervention group and a significant difference was found in both groups between the subscales of “Basic Skills and Personal (Self) Expression”, “Willingness to Communicate”, “Caring Communication” and “Active Listening and Non-Verbal Communication” and the total mean score after the intervention. Based on the study results, it can be concluded that emotional awareness skills training is an effective psychiatric nursing intervention that improves emotional awareness and communication skills. NCT05038927 •Emotional awareness and communication skills are deficient in schizophrenia.•Emotional awareness skills training reduced the “TAS-1” and “TAS-2” scores in patients with schizophrenia.•This training enhanced the patients' communication skills.•This training is effective psychiatric nursing intervention to improve emotional awareness and communication skills.