Relations between the course of illness, family history of schizophrenia and family functioning in persons with schizophrenia.

The aims of this study were to identify the aspects of family functioning which are associated with the course and remission of schizophrenia and to explore relations between aspects of family functioning and family history of schizophrenia. The subjects were 90 patients, treated at the Clinical hospital centre in Rijeka, Croatia, with diagnosed schizophrenia (F20.0 to F20.5) and without psychiatric comorbidity. The patients were organized into three groups depending on the treatment status during the calendar year that preceded the year in which the survey took place: patients with schizophrenia who received an outpatient care and were maintaining favourable remission, patients who were hospitalized once to twice and patients who were hospitalized at least three times in the precedent calendar year. The treatment status was used as an indicator of the course of the illness. A Family Functioning Scale was applied and the data on the absence/presence of schizophrenia in the family history were collected through the examination of previous medical records. The lowest prevalence of familial schizophrenia was found among the patients who were maintaining favourable remission. Among the three groups statistically significant differences were found regarding the following family functioning variables: expressiveness, family sociability, democratic family style. Also there were observed statistically significant differences in the family functioning depending on the presence/absence of the schizophrenia in the family history that included following domains: family cohesion, external locus of control and democratic family style. Our study gives support to the conclusion that family functioning of persons with schizophrenia differs depending on the course of the illness and presence/absence of schizophrenia in the family history.