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In a supportive environment, medical students will discuss their experiences of mistreatment. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress can occur from mistreatment.

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Assessing a family's functioning may be an important factor in the care of the dementia patient and his/her family.

Caregivers for relatives with dementia can maintain their quality of life without specific intervention. It is unclear which variables are protective and which variables are aggravating for the caregiver. To assess the impact of family functioning on caregiver burden over time, the authors had caregivers of out patients with dementia complete self-report questionnaires at recruitment and at 1 year. At recruitment, 63% of caregivers were female, with a mean age of 62 years. Mean patient age was 73 years. The average number of caregiving years was 3.1. Caregivers were more likely to be spouses (61%). After 1-year, caregivers who stayed in the study reported no change in burden, reward, quality of life, or overall family functioning, although the patient's activities of daily living and level of disability were perceived to have significantly deteriorated. Caregivers who reported poor family functioning at initial assessment had higher ratings of strain and burden.

This study examines the quality of life of caregivers of hospitalized relatives with mood disorders. Caregivers reported poor social, physical and emotional functioning. Family functioning was poor in the areas of roles, communication and affective involvement. It is significant that problem-solving, affective responsiveness and behavior control are within the normal range, indicating that these families do have strengths. Subjective burden but not objective burden was correlated with a poorer quality of life. Less than 30% of caregivers received help from other relatives and less than 5% sought help from outside organizations like NAMI, MDDA or VNA.

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Current evidence supports increased emphasis on family-oriented psychiatric practice.