title: The relationship of social network deficits with deficits in social functioning in long-term psychiatric disorders.
abstract: It has been suggested that deficits or impairments in social functioning may explain the depleted support networks of the mentally ill. With this in mind, 145 long-term users of day care psychiatric facilities, 57% of whom had a life-time diagnosis of schizophrenia, were examined to determine whether deficits in social and survival skills explained deficits in their social networks. Compared with patients with acute depression, long-term patients had smaller social networks. There was a very small but statistically significant association between observer ratings of deficits in social functioning (daily social and living skills) and self-reported family social networks size. Behavioural problems were also associated with smaller family networks. Among the long-term patients, duration of service contact and type of disorder (affective vs nonaffective psychosis) were not related to network size. These preliminary findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester, Leicester Royal Infirmary, UK.
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Brugha
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Wing
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Brewin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: MacCarthy
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lesage
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012919:Social Behavior; D012932:Social Facilitation; D012944:Social Support