Psychopathology, Disability & Family Burden of Patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Affective Disorders -A Comparison

Schizophrenia and Bipolar Affective disorder (BPAD) are major psychiatric illnesses. Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of population and most commonly have its onset in early adult life. The illness leaves the patients with varying degree of cognitive, affective and psychosocial impairment. It leads to disability in social, occupational and familial domains. The long-term studies have reported that 60% of schizophrenic patients become chronic. As the illness affects the young people, it has a major impact upon the productivity of the patient. BPAD has a lifetime prevalence of 0.4-1.6%. Studies have found that the level of dysfunction in Bipolar Affective Disorder is comparable to that in schizophrenia. We conducted a cross sectional study at a tertiary in-patient psychiatric center. Aim and objectives were: 1. To assess and compare the psychopathology and disability of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder. 2. To assess the caregiver burden of the two groups of patients and to correlate with psychopathology and disability. Thirty one schizophrenia patients and 30 BPAD patients and their care-givers participated. There was no significant difference in the mean duration of illness and treatment between the two groups. The caregiver of schizophrenia patients were mainly mother and brothers whereas in bipolar group the main caregiver was spouse. The schizophrenia patients had significantly higher disability in overall behavior and in the individual items. The subjective burden score was higher in families of schizophrenia patients but objective score were slightly higher for families of bipolar patients. The burden in the items of disruption of family routines, family leisure and interaction is higher in the positive subtype of Schizophrenia.