Socio-Demographic Profile, Burden and Coping in Spouses of Patients with Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Alcohol Dependence Syndrome- A Cross Sectional Study

BACKGROUND Serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, alcohol dependence syndrome lead to great burden in care givers who adopt a variety of methods to cope with their family member's illness. Burden perceived and coping styles used by spouses is quite different from other care givers given their close relationship with the patient. Little research is focused on spouses as an exclusive group for the assessment of burden & coping. The aim was to study the socio-demographic profile, the burden and coping in the spouses of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence syndrome. METHODS This study was conducted at the Institute of Mental Health, Hyderabad, among 180 study participants including spouses (30 male & 30 female) from patient groups of the above three illnesses. After obtaining written informed consent, patient and spouse were interviewed with a semi-structured intake pro-forma to capture the socio-demographic details of spouse, illness, marital, family & treatment history. After initial assessment of patient's functional status using GAF scale; BAS, CCL, GHQ-12 instruments were administered on spouses to assess the burden of illness, coping styles and general health status. SPSS 17 was applied to the data. RESULTS Alcohol use and mental illness is high in families of patients with alcohol dependence reaching statistical significance. Nuclear families are high in schizophrenia group and in alcohol dependence group, substance use in spouses is high at 25 (52.1%) along with abuse of spouses at 19 (67.9%) with statistical significance. Also, means of GHQ-12 in alcohol dependence group is higher than other groups while means of BAS is higher in alcohol dependence group. CONCLUSIONS Burden perceived by spouses of these three patient groups is significant. The coping styles used by spouses to handle the distress due to patient's illness are many. A high global functioning score of the patient corresponds to good general health in the spouse. Proper psychosocial interventions when employed can help spouses deal better with burden and enhance coping styles.