Details
Category: Volume 05 Issue 11 November 2017
Hits: 1807

Title: Family Burden in Caregivers of Chronic Schizophrenia and Bipolar Affective Disorder – A Comparative Study

Authors: Dr Kavery Bora, Dr Abhilekh Das

 DOI:  https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i11.73

Abstract

Introduction: Due to paucity of organised care, families have been part of mental health care all throughout the history of India. The primary objectives of the present study were to assess burden of Caregiver of Chronic Schizophrenia, to assess burden of Caregiver of Bipolar Affective Disorder, make a comparison between these two and to assess the relationship of burden of the caregiver with the global assessment of functioning of patients of Chronic Schizophrenia and Bipolar Affective Disorder.

Materials and Methods: It was a hospital based cross sectional and comparative study, conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, Assam MedicaI College and Hospital with a sample size of 30 primary caregivers of equal number of patients of Chronic Schizophrenia and 30 Primary caregivers of equal number of Bipolar Affective Disorder patients. Appropriate statistical tests were used for analysis of obtained data setting significance threshold at p <0.05.

Results: Caregivers of Chronic Schizophrenia experienced significantly higher burden than the caregivers of BPAD. A strong positive correlation was seen between caregiver’s burden and level of impairment in functioning of patients of Chronic Schizophrenia whereas in the Bipolar Affective Disorder group although the correlation was positive it was weak in comparison to the Schizophrenia group.

Conclusion: The chronic nature of Schizophrenia puts more burden on the family. A stronger positive correlation between caregiver’s burden and level of impairment in functioning is seen in case of Chronic Schizophrenia compared to BPAD.

Keywords: Family, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Affective Disorder, Burden.

References

  1. Weidman G., Halweg K.; Hank G. Deliverability of psycho–educational social family management. Schizophr. Bull. 1994; 20: 547–56.
  2. The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders: Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. World Health Organization, Geneva. A.I.T.B.S; 2007. P. 116-19
  3. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EE. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 June; 62(6):593-602.
  4. Chakrabarti S., Kulhara P.; Nehra R; Sharma R. (2005). Caregivers coping in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: A re–examination, Social Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. Apr; 40 (4): 329–36.
  5. Provencher H.L. (1996): Objective Burden among Primary Caregivers of Persons with Chronic Schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Neuroscience, Jun; 3(3): 181–7.
  6. Grad and Sainsbury P. (1963): Mental Illness and the Family. Lancet, I; 544–547.
  7. Pai S. and Kapur R.L. (1981): The Burden on the Family of Psychiatric Patient: Development of an Interview Schedule. British Journal of Psychiatry; 138: 332–8.
  8. Schene, A., Van Wijngaarden, B. and Koeter, M. (1998). Family care giving in schizophrenia: Domains and distress. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 24: 609–618.
  9. Platt, S. (1985).Measuring the Burden of psychiatric illness on the family: an evaluation of some rating scales. Psychological Medicine, 15: 385–394.
  10. Lazarus RS., Folkman S. (1984): Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer.
  11. Folkman S., Lazarus R.S. (1985): If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. J. Personality Social Psychology, 48; 150–70.
  12. Pai S. and Kapur R.L. (1982): Impact of Treatment Intervention on the Relationship between Dimensions of Clinical Psychop-athology, Social Dysfunction and Burden on the Family of Psychiatric Patients. Psychological Medicine; 12: 651–658.
  13. Gautam S. and Nijhawan M.(1984): Burden on Families Schizophrenic and Chronic Lung Disease Patients. Indian Journal of Psychiatry; 26 (2), 156–159.
  14. Martyn–Yellow I.S. (1992): The burden of Schizophrenia on the family: A study from Nigeria. British Journal of Psychiatry; 161: 779–782.
  15. Magliano, L, Fadden, G. et al (2000) Family burden and coping strategies in schizophrenia: 1 year follow up data from the BIOMED I study. Social psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 35: 109–115.
  16. Roy Choudhury R., Mondal D., Boral A. and Bhattacharya (1995): Family Burden among Long Term Psychiatric Patients. Indian Journal of Psychiatry; 37(2), 81–85.
  17. Salleh M.R. (1994). The burden of care of schizophrenia in Malay Families. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 89: 180–185.
  18. Winefield H.R., Harvey E.J. (1993): Determinants of Psychological Distress in Relatives of People with Chronic Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia Bulletin; 19(3): 619–25.
  19. Jenkins, J.H., Schumacher, J.G. (1999). Family Burden of schizophrenia and depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 174: 31–38.
  20. Gopinath P.S. and Chaturvedi (1992): Disturbing behaviour of schizophrenics at Home. Acta Psychiatr Scand; 86, 185–188.
  21. Goldberg D. and Huxley P. (1980): Mental Illness in The Community, Tovistock: London
  22. Hoenig and Hamilton M. W. (1969): Desegregation of the Mentally ill. London Rutledge and Kegan Paul.
  23. Clausen J. and Yarrow M.R. (1955): Mental Illness and the Family. Journal of Social Issues, 11, 3–5.
  24. Thara R., Padmavathi R., Kumar S., Srinivassan, L (1998) Burden Assessment Schedule: Instrument to assess burden on caregivers of chronic mentally ill. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 40, 21–29.
  25. Singh PM et al 2012: Burden of schizophrenia on caregivers in Nepal, Nepal Med Coll J 2012; 15(2): 140-143
  26. Gupta Aditya et al 2014: Psychological well-being and burden in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia, International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health, Vol 4, Issue 1, Pg 70-74
  27. Maji K.R., Sood Mamta, Sagar Rajesh, Khandelwal Sudhir.K. A follow-up study of family burden in patients with bipolar affective disorder. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 2011 March; Volume 58(2): 217-223
  28. Vasudeva S., Sekhar Chandra K., Rao Prasad G. Caregivers burden of patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: A Sectional Study. Indian J Psychol Med. 2013 Oct-Dec; Volume 35(4): 352-357.
  29. Endicott J., Spitzer R.H., Fleiss J.L. The Global Assessment Scale: A Procedure for measuring overall severity of Psychiatric disturbances. Archives of General Psychiatry; 1976, Volume 33: 766-71.
  30. Giel R., De Arango M. V. and Hafiez B. A. The Burden of Mental illness on the Family; Results of Observations in our Developing Countries, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia. 1983; 68: 186–201.
  31. Rammohan A., Rao k. Subbakrishna D.K. Burden and coping in caregivers of persons with schizophrenia. Indian J. Psychiatry. 2002; 44 (suppl. 3): 220–7.
  32. Saiyad, M., Vankar, G.K. Caregiver’s Burden in schizophrenia and Bipolar Mood Disorder Patients: a comparative study. Archives of Indian Psychiatry. 2005; 7 (1): 34–41.
  33. Neog B.S. and Bhagabati D. A study of Social Dysfunctioning and Burden on the Family of Schizophrenia Patients. Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 1998; Vol. 40: Pg, 9–10.
  34. Credo, Parkar; Dean A., Shubhangi R.; Ravindra M.; Kamath. A comparison of the level of functioning in chronic schizophrenia with coping and burden in caregivers: Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2006; 48: 27–33.

Corresponding Author

Dr Abhilekh Das

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Mobile: 9678248254