The Effect of a Life Review Group on the Reminiscence Functions of Geropsychiatric Inpatients

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Reminiscence Functions Scale (RFS) was used with 25 male veterans admitted to an inpatient geropsychiatric unit. Pre-post changes on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were comvared to pre-post changes in total reminisience and the separate factors: (1) Boredom reduction, (2) Death Preparation, (3) Identity Problem Solving, (4) Conversation, (5) Intimacy Maintenance, (6) Bitterness Revival, and (7) Teach/Inform. The results found a non-significant trend toward a decrease from pre-test to post-test in total reminiscence and on all of the RFS factors except Bitterness Revival. Interestingly, the inpatients reminisced significantly more at admission than the validation sample on RFS total and on most of the RFS factors, but the groups became more similar at discharge. In conclusion, the setting of reminiscence is of prime importance for positive therapeutic change to occur, and the RFS may be a useful tool in identifying ideal treatment contexts for the life review group.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: