Social networks of patients with psychosis: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundSocial networks are important for mental health outcomes as they can mobilise resources and help individuals to cope with social stressors. Individuals with psychosis may have specific difficulties in establishing and maintaining social relationships which impacts on their well-being and quality of life. There has been a growing interest in developing social network interventions for patients with psychotic disorders. A systematic literature review was conducted to investigate the size of social networks of patients with psychotic disorders, as well as their friendship networks.MethodsA systematic electronic search was carried out in MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsychINFO databases using a combination of search terms relating to ‘social network’, ‘friendship’ and ‘psychotic disorder’.ResultsThe search identified 23 relevant papers. Out of them, 20 reported patient social network size. Four papers reported the mean number of friends in addition to whole network size, while three further papers focused exclusively on the number of friends. Findings varied substantially across the studies, with a weighted mean size of 11.7 individuals for whole social networks and 3.4 individuals for friendship networks. On average, 43.1 % of the whole social network was composed of family members, while friends accounted for 26.5 %.ConclusionsStudies assessing whole social network size and friendship networks of people with psychosis are difficult to compare as different concepts and methods of assessment were applied. The extent of the overlap between different social roles assessed in the networks was not always clear. Greater conceptual and methodological clarity is needed in order to help the development of effective strategies to increase social resources of patients with psychosis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1528-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Community treatment orders and social outcomes for patients with psychosis: a 48-month follow-up study

“…The social networks of patients in this study were small: a mean of 10.2 individuals. This is remarkably close to the figure of 11.7 reported in a recent systematic review of the social networks of patients with psychotic illnesses [36]. We found that relatives made up 42% of these contacts, very close to the systematic review figure of 43.1%.…”

The effectiveness of interventions for reducing subjective and objective social isolation among people with mental health problems: a systematic review

“…Moreover, loneliness is associated with poorer quality of life [17] and personal recovery [18], and with more severe mental health symptoms [19]. Similarly, a number of negative health outcomes have been found to be associated with objective social isolation, for example, increased all-cause mortality rate [20], poor physical health outcomes [21,22], worse psychotic symptoms [23,24], depressive symptoms [24], and higher risk of dementia [25]. Conversely, social support that is perceived as sufficient is associated with less severe psychiatric symptoms, higher functioning, better personal recovery, greater self-esteem and empowerment, and improved quality of life [26].…”

Factors associated with postpartum psychiatric admission in a population‐based cohort of women with schizophrenia

“…Older women with schizophrenia have also accumulated physical health risks as a result of their illness, their life style and perhaps also as a result of long exposure to antipsychotic drugs . However, it is also possible that younger women with schizophrenia had higher levels of social support than older women, a hypothesis that is supported by schizophrenia literature suggesting that family support tends to decline with length of illness . It is also possible that adolescent mothers with schizophrenia had access to more comprehensive support from formal supports and services such as could be offered in comprehensive first‐episode psychosis programmes, and/or from public health nursing that mitigated their risk for psychiatric crises requiring admission.…”