[Links between burden of care in parents of patients with schizophrenia or personality disorders and family interactions].

AIM: The aim of this study is to explore relationships between burden of care in parents of patients with schizophrenia or personality disorders and family interactions. Two main types of family interactions were distinguished according to Stierlin's theory: binding and expelling. Whereas binding leads to an increase in mutual dependency, expelling leads to a rise of mutual independence.

METHOD: Families were divided into three groups according to the ICD-10 diagnosis of the index offspring (18-35 years old): (1) schizophrenia (N=33), (2) personality disorder (N=35), (3) control group (N=35). There were no significant differences in the mean age of adult children and mean age of parents, occupational patterns of parents, number of children in families and length of marriage between three groups. Subjects (mother, father and young adult) completed the originally designed questionnaires in which psychometric properties had been analyzed in earlier pilot research.

RESULTS

In families with schizophrenic young adults, the levels of burden were elevated. However there was no statistical significance between the mean scores of parental burden in the families of schizophrenic patients and young adults with diagnosis of personality disorders. Parental burden was positively correlated with parents' expelling in families with young adults with schizophrenia or personality disorders. Father's burden was positively correlated with mother's expelling in all groups of families.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that the degree of parental burden may have an impact on family interactions.