Relapse Prevention in Mental Illnesses: Concepts, Issues and Strategies with Perspectives of Psychiatric Nursing- Review Article

Abstract

The aim of this review article was to explore and understand the concepts, issues and preventive strategies
of mental health relapse with psychiatric nursing perspectives and also to present a comprehensive concept
of relapse and its prevention in a narrative form based on the evidences from the various sources of
literature. The review materials were included from the books, journals, news papers, online data base and
grey literature of last three decades to 2018. The significant articles were searched by using key words:
“Relapse”, “Mental illness”, “Prevention of Relapse”, “Relapse AND Mental illness”, “Relapse Prevention
AND Mental illness” in PubMed, CINHAL, PsychINFO SCOPUS and Google Scholar data bases. Based
on the relevant and significant facts found with respect to the aim of the review, concepts were evolved and
evidence based narration was made under each concepts to understand prevention of mental health relapse
with regards to identification of issues and formulating strategies to overcome such issues with psychiatric
nursing perspectives. The study concluded that, relapse is a major obstacle for recovery of mental illness,
but can be preventable by addressing underlying issues with preventive approaches across various health
care settings.