Findings indicate the need for intervention for family caregivers to enable them cope more effectively with the demands of caregiving. Psychoeducation and participation in peer support groups are advocated as low resource and effective outcome strategies for caregivers in India.

Schizophrenia is a global mental health issue that has serious\ud implications not only for the person with the diagnosis, but for\ud caregivers as well. In Asian societies, the family tends to be the\ud “natural” caregiver in such situations and the caregiving function\ud is usually shouldered by parents or the spouse. Asian\ud communities tend to be more closely knit, and it would be\ud expected that more social support would be available to those\ud facing distressing circumstances such as managing the\ud demands of a person with mental illness. This study seeks to\ud explore the perceived burden in family caregivers of persons\ud diagnosed with schizophrenia, the coping strategies that come\ud into play, as well as the extent of social support available to\ud them. Standardized instruments were administered to collect\ud data at a teaching cum treatment facility in south India. A\ud quantitative methodology was used to analyze cross-sectional\ud data from 75 primary caregivers of people with a diagnosis of\ud schizophrenia and a reference group of caregivers of patients\ud with general medical ailments. Results indicate high levels of\ud burden, low social support, and poor coping in the caregivers\ud of people with schizophrenia than the reference group.\ud Implications for intervention with caregivers are also discussed\ud in this article

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness that has repercussions for the afflicted individual as well as the immediate family. While family caregiving entails enormous burden, it is also acknowledged that the experience may be perceived as being rewarding. This study seeks to understand key aspects of caregiving in terms of perceived rewards, the experience of hope, and the social support available to family caregivers. Standardized instruments to assess these variables were administered to primary caregivers of people with schizophrenia and a comparative group. It was seen that both hope, and perceived social support significantly predicted reward perception in the caregivers.

No abstract

The psychological features of spinal cord injured (SCI) patients involved in the Madras Paraplegia Project are described. Three hundred and twenty-eight patients were studied. Based on personality tests, 11% were extroverts, 14% were introverts and 76% were neither extroverts nor introverts. Twenty-four percent of the subjects were neurotic, 11% had a depressive illness, and 26% had pathological anxiety. The study has highlighted the psychological status of SCI patients, and the usefulness of a psychiatric team in the multidisciplinary care of such patients. This is probably the first large psychological study of SCI patients from a developing country.