Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:32:35.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Burden experienced by care-givers of persons with bipolar affective disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Deborah Perlick ,
Robert R. Rosenheck ,
John F. Clarkin ,
Jo Anne Sirey ,
Patrick Raue ,
Susan Greenfield  and
Elmer Struening
Deborah Perlick*
Affiliation:
Northeast Program Evaluation Center, West Haven VAMC and the Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Robert R. Rosenheck
Affiliation:
Northeast Program Evaluation Center, West Haven VAMC and the Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
John F. Clarkin
Affiliation:
New York Hospital, Westchester Division and Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains. New York, USA
Jo Anne Sirey
Affiliation:
New York Hospital, Westchester Division and Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains. New York, USA
Patrick Raue
Affiliation:
New York Hospital, Westchester Division and Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains. New York, USA
Susan Greenfield
Affiliation:
New York Hospital, Westchester Division and Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains. New York, USA
Elmer Struening
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology of Mental Disorders, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University School of Public Health, New York, USA
*
Deborah Perlick, Northeast Program Evaluation Center, Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Avenue. West Haven CT 06516, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Family members of patients with schizophrenia frequently report burdens associated with caring for their relatives.

Aims

We evaluate the impact of illness beliefs on the burden reported by family care-givers of people with bipolar illness.

Method

The multivariate relationships between patient symptomatology and family illness beliefs and report of burden were examined at baseline among care-givers of 266 patients with Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed bipolar illness who were subsequently followed for 15 months.

Results

At baseline, 93% of care-givers reported moderate or greater distress in at least one burden domain. As a group, care-giver illness beliefs (illness awareness, perception of patient and family control) explained an additional 18–28% of variance in burden experienced beyond the effects of the patients clinical state and history.

Conclusions

Care-givers of patients with bipolar illness report widespread burden that is influenced by beliefs about the illness.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 175 , Issue 1 , July 1999 , pp. 56 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Declaration of interest

Support received from the National Institute of Mental Health, USA.

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM–IV). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Barrowdough, C. & Parle, M. (1997) Appraisal, psychological adjustment and expressed emotion in relatives of patients suffering from schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 171, 26–30.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M. & Cochrane, R. (1990) Families coping with schizophrenia: coping styles, their origins and correlates. Psychological Medicine, 20, 857–865.Google Scholar
Carsky, M., Selzer, M., Terkelsen, K., et al (1992) The PEH: a questionnaire to assess acknowledgement of psychiatric illness. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 458–464.Google Scholar
Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. L. (1978) A diagnostic interview: schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 15, 837–844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fadden, G., Bebbington, P. & Kuipers, L. (1987) The burden of care: the impact of functional psychiatric illness on the patients family. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 285–292.Google Scholar
Falloon, I. R. K. & Pederson, J. (1985) Family management and the prevention of morbidity in schizophrenia: the adjustment of the family unit. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 156–163.Google Scholar
Haley, W. E., Levine, E. G., Brown, S. L., et al (1987) Stress, appraisal, coping and social support as predictors of adaptational outcome among dementia caregivers. Psychology and Aging, 2, 323–330.Google Scholar
Hoenig, J. & Hamilton, M. W. (1960) The De-Segregation of the Mentally Ill. London: Rout ledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hooley, J., Richters, J. E., Weintraub, S., et al (1987) Psychopathology and marital distress: the positive side of positive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 27–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lulcoff, D., Nuechterlein, K. H. & Ventura, J. (1988) Manual for expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 594–602.Google Scholar
Mandelbrote, B. M. & Folkard, S. (1961) Some problems and needs of schizophrenics in relation to a developing psychiatric community service. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2, 317–328.Google Scholar
Mikowitz, D. J., Goldstein, M. J., Doane, J. A., et al (1989) Is expressed emotion an index of a transactional process? I. Parents' affective style. Family Process, 28, 153–167.Google Scholar
Noh, S. & Turner, J. (1987) Living with psychiatric patients: implications for the mental health of family members. Social Science in Medicine, 25, 263–271.Google Scholar
Perlick, D., Stastny, P., Mattis, S., et al (1992) Contributions of family, cognitive and clinical dimensions to long-term outcome in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 6, 257–265.Google Scholar
Platt, S., Weyman, A., Hirsch, S., et al (1978) The social behavior assessment schedule (SBAS): rationale, contents, scoring and reliability of a new interview schedule. Social Psychiatry, 15, 43–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollak, C. P. & Perlick, D. (1991) Sleep problems and institutionalization of the elderly. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 4, 204–210.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 15, 773–782.Google Scholar
Struening, E. L., Stueve, A., Vine, P., et al (1995) Factors associated with grief and depressive symptoms in caregivers of people with serious mental illness. Research in Community and Mental Health, 8, 91–124.Google Scholar
Targum, S. D., Dibble, E. D., Davenport, Y. B., et al (1981) The family attitude questionnaire: patient and spouses views of bipolar illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 18, 562–568.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M. (1974) The Depressed Woman: a Study of Social Relationships. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.