Effect of Positive Emotional Treatment Program on Anhedonia and Apathy among Schizophrenic Patients

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of positive emotional treatment program on anhedonia and apathy among schizophrenic patients. Setting: The present study was conducted at the Al-Abbassia Mental Health Hospital. Sample: A purposive sample consisted of thirty schizophrenic patients was recruited in the current study. The sample of the current study was divided into experimental and control groups. Methods: A quazi-experimental design was used in this study. Three tools were used to collect the data for the current study, Personal data sheet, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and The Savoring Beliefs Inventory. A constructed positive emotional program was designed to help patients to develop necessary skills for modifying defeatist thinking, to learn and practice a new skill to improve their anticipation or maintenance of pleasure. This program was implemented over thirteen sessions, two sessions per week and each session lasted about 60-90 minutes. Pre and post assessments were carried out for the experimental and control groups. Results: The current study results revealed overall significant effects of positive emotional program regarding decreasing patients’ negative symptoms and increasing their anticipation or maintenance of pleasure. Socio-demographic data showed no statistically significant in relation to pre and post assessments, however; anhedonia domain was statistically related with level of education. Conclusion and recommendations: the study concluded that, the positive emotional program was effective with schizophrenic patients' concerning reducing negative symptoms and enhancing anticipation or maintenance of pleasure. The study recommended that, the positive emotional program should be incorporated into treatment regimen of schizophrenic patients. In addition, applying techniques that are proven to be positively correlated with emotional regulation enhancement such as mindfulness practice rather than just using medication that have less effect on patient ‘emotions. Keywords: Schizophrenia, positive emotion, apathy, Anhedoni