Brief Family Therapy (BFT) for the Treatment of Psychosomatic Symptoms in Rwanda

Summary

Mental health is fundamental part of the human being worldwide taken as the driver of all daily activities of the people. Psychosomatic disorders are the psychological diseases that are the burden in mental health worldwide. These diseases characterized by the medically unexplained symptomatology (MUS) are considered as a comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework for assessment of psychological factors affecting individual vulnerability, as well as course and outcome of illness; biopsychosocial consideration of patient care in clinical practice; specialist interventions to integrate psychological therapies in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of medical disease. This psychosomatic symptomatology is highly prevalent in developing countries. Prior studies stated that Brief family therapy (BFT) is an effective for MUS. Some possible reasons could be solving conflicts and interpersonal problems by means of training certain skills such as problem solving, developing relationships with others, effective coping, assertiveness and positive thinking. This quasi-experimental design investigates whether BFT can reduce psychosomatic symptoms in Kibungo referral hospital of Eastern Province, Rwanda. Experimental group enroll 60 patients who will be followed up during 2 months. Control group enroll 60 patients. Participants from experimental group will attend 8 sessions of BFT. Statistical analyses will be performed using the SPSS software version 22. As recommended by the declaration of Helsinki, confidentiality and voluntariness were ensured. Informed consents were obtained from the participants. Paired-samples t-test will be used for assessing the means differences between two groups before and after the BFT. 95% of confidence intervals and 5% of statistical significance are applied. In the baseline, sociodemographic questionnaire and psychometric tools will be provided. The psychometric tools will be used in the baseline and at the end of BFT sessions.

Conditions

• Patient Engagement

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Brief Family Therapy (BFT)

Patients transferred to the hospital for the treatment of psychosomatic symptoms was randomized (1:1) to receive either Brief Family Therapy (BFT) or a control treatment. Some participants randomized to the BFT arm receive a combination of chemotherapy and BFT and others receive only BFT. BFT comprises 10 sessions using a generic model of problem formation and resolution. This psychotherapy is useful for treating individual, couple, and family problems. Its broad applicability is based on its view that the client's complaint is the problem, not a symptom of something else BFT views behavior, especially a client's problematic behavior, as a function of interaction with other people. After randomization, all participants were asked to complete questionnaires about their psychosomatic symptoms and health at baseline, at the end of the intervention (at 4 months).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Rwanda

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Francoise Uwizeye, Mr. · University of Rwanda

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

59 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-03-01

Primary Completion

2020-07-30

Completion

2020-12-30

Countries

• Rwanda

Study Locations