Psychometric properties of the burden inventory for relatives of persons with psychotic disturbances.

Earlier studies have shown that close relatives are heavily burdened when a family member has schizophrenia. The current purpose was twofold: (1) to examine the psychometric properties for a test of the burden of family members, one used in Swedish clinical practice (the Care Burden Scale for Relatives), and (2) develop a shortened version with the same or better psychometric properties. 99 close relatives, 34 men and 65 women of the same number of patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or delusional disorder, completed the Care Burden Scale for Relatives and a visual analog scale measuring perceived global burden on which the total burden was assessed. Patients of the close relatives were assessed on clinical tests often used in psychiatric care to validate the external criteria, such as severity of symptoms and level of functioning. The resulting version, the Burden Inventory for Relatives of persons with psychotic disturbances, showed good psychometric properties which simplifies data collection from relatives of patients with psychotic disturbances. In this study, relatives of those patients not in remission evinced a significantly greater family burden.