RESUMEN
Severely impaired insight is one of the main characteristics of psychotic disorders that present a major obstacle for treatment. Traditionally, insight has often been viewed as a simple or unitary construct. Recently, it is considered as a complex phenomenon with multiple components. A general lack of insight is widespread and very common in many patients with schizophrenia. Psycho-education is a form of mental health intervention which focuses on educating patients about their disorders, emotional responses, and treatments, as well as supporting positive coping mechanisms. The main purpose of this study was to determine the impact of psycho-education intervention on insight development among hospitalized schizophrenic patients. A structured frame of psycho-education intervention was developed by the researchers. The intervention aimed at increasing patients' awareness about their mental disorder, their symptoms as well as its attribution, the social consequences of mental disorder and the achieved effects of medication. Before the implementation of psycho-education intervention, the total Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder [SUMD] mean scores for current awareness and attribution were 13.78 +/- 2.95 for the intervention group and 15.04 +/- 2.73 for the control group [mild to moderate degree lack of insight]. These results changed after the implementation of the psycho-education intervention to 7.96 +/- 2.81 and 15.67 +/- 2.39 respectively, with a statistical significant improvement [t=14.731, P=0.00] on the part of the intervention group. This was also true when comparing the two groups' SUMD subscale mean scores