Psychological distress among relatives of patients with schizophrenia and mood disorder

What is it about?

We examined the process of providing care by family members of patients with schizophrenia and mood disorders using a well known model called the stress-appraisal-coping approach. We also tried to determine which of the factors, the demands placed on relatives or their attributes such as coping capacity, social support and personality traits, were more important in determining psychological distress among relatives. We found high levels of distress and illness burden among the relatives. However, rather than problems caused by the illness it was the relatives' personality traits, perception, coping and support which seemed to be of greater relevance in determining distress.

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Photo by JR Korpa on Unsplash

Photo by JR Korpa on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The fact that personality attributes, coping capacity and support had a greater influence on burden indicated that relatives will react differently to similar levels of illness burden depending on their personal characteristics. This has been found earlier among patients with dementia but not too often among patients with schizophrenia and mood disorders. This study not only extends these findings to these patients, but also to patients from a non-Western country (India) to show that these findings hold true across cultures.

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