[The study of family structure, illness symptom, and stress adaptation of psychotic patients].
The major purposes of this paper are to explore the phenomena of family structure, illness symptoms, family coping and adaptation for patients with schizophrenia or manic-depression psychosis. This paper tries to provide a good reference instrument for application by nurses in home care, in order to understand and evaluate family needs. Subjects are schizophrenic or manic-depression outpatients from 3 hospitals located in northern Taiwan. Data were collected through home interview with primary caregivers and observations. There were fifty subjects from each of the 3 hospitals, and 151 subjects in total. Descriptive statistics, t-test, one way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and multiple stepwise correlation were used to analyze data. Research indicates that most patients are aged between 31 to 40, with over 10 years elapsed since onset, and are not married. Most primary caregivers are parents over 60 years old. Most family development was at the stage with young adult offspring. The manic-depressive patients have more working opportunities than schizophrenic patients. For schizophrenic patients, paranoia was the most serious in active symptoms; lack of interpersonal interaction was the most serious in negative symptoms; the other major problem was sleep disturbance in emotion-behavior assessment. Patient's disposition was the most concerning issue for families and the worst coping efficiency occurred with lazy behavior and sleep disturbance. For manic-depressive patients, aggressive behavior was the most serious active symptom, lack of energy was the most serious in negative symptom, and sleep disturbance was the most concerning problem in emotion-behavior assessment. The patient's symptom was the most concerning issue for families and the worst coping efficiency was found in drug side effect. The result also indicates that active and negative symptoms are both related to coping efficiency.
Shiau
S
S
School of Nursing, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Republic of China.
Yang
C Y
CY
Yeh
Y Y
YY
Huang
J Y
JY
Chen
M Y
MY
Wu
L L
LL
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology