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Learning Objective 1: identify the stressors that are faced by families of psychiatric patients.
Learning Objective 2: think about the recommendations regarding the stressors faced by family members of psychiatric patients.
Families of all patients usually face stressors, but its prevalence and severity is high in families of psychiatric patients. A study in 2006 reported that family members had a 15% lower level of antibody responses and a 23% higher level of stress hormones.
Purpose
The purpose of this review is to identify different stressors faced by family members of a psychiatric patient.
Method
A systematic review of literature of last 11 years that is 1998 to 2008 was performed that included both research and literature review articles.
Findings
The analysis revealed various stressors that included problems due to stigmatization, negative effects on physical health and emotional disturbances increase to such a high extent, that family members end up into severe mental and emotional drain. The rates of depression, anticipatory grief and ambiguous loss are significantly higher in families of Alzheimer patients. Spousal caregivers also suffer from cognitive problems as their memory and efficiency for input decreases day by day. Severity of financial burden increases if the patient is the only bread earner in the family. Families also face a disturbance in their domestic lives. Thus, these stressors affect all aspects of family member’s lives.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Families of a psychiatric patient feel very distressed not only because it affects them in many ways; infact it turns the direction of the entire family. Awareness sessions and support groups could be arranged on institutional level. We should modify our approach; spend more time with families and frequent family counseling sessions can play a vital role in the field of Psychiatry.