An unexpected visitor and a sword play: a randomized controlled trial of collective narrative therapy groups for primary carers of people with schizophrenia.

Background: Most family carer support programs focus on supporting carers with caregiving-related knowledge and skills to help their family members who suffer from schizophrenia in their recovery process while carers' inner resources and preferred identities are less emphasized in the existing studies.

Aims: The present study uses collective narrative therapy groups (CNTG) to promote the inner strengths and agency of family carers and help them to explore their preferred identities while caring for family members with schizophrenia.

Method: To ensure an evidence-based intervention, 89 Chinese family carers of people with schizophrenia took part in this three-wave longitudinal program evaluation study using a randomized controlled trial design.

Outside-in or Inside-out? A Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Empowerment Approaches for Family Caregivers of People with Schizophrenia.

Training-based intervention such as psychoeducational groups has become increasingly popular to empower family caregivers of people with schizophrenia, yet existing supportive programs for caregivers tend to focus more on the needs of the patients rather than the development of the caregivers. This study aimed to compare the outcomes of a skill-based empowerment psychoeducational group and an inner-resource enhancing empowerment narrative therapy group for family caregivers of people with schizophrenia. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with a longitudinal design.

Can We Hit Two Birds with One Stone: An Effectiveness Study of Peer-support Groups for Low-income Spousal and Adult Children Caregivers of Hong Kong Older Adults.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of peer support groups for low-income older adults' caregivers in the Hong Kong community. It compares the effectiveness of peer support groups on spouse and adult children caregivers. The peer support program was structured into three stages, including six training sessions for peer specialists, eight caregiver support group sessions, and non-structured informal contact.

[Prognostic value of serum IL-6 in patients with multiple myeloma].

This study was aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of serum IL-6 (sIL-6) in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). The sIL-6 level in 288 patients with MM was retrospectively analyzed, and the clinical characteristics and prognosis in patients with different IL-6 level were compared. The newly diagnosed patients with MM were divided into two groups: the low sIL-6 group (sIL-6 < 100 pg/ml) and the high sIL-6 group (sIL-6 ≥ 100 pg/ml).