Study to Compare the Caregiver Burden of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia is a severe and disabling mental disorder characterised by fundamental distortions in thinking and perception and by inappropriate emotion and behavior. Bipolar disorder is a severe mental illness with a chronic course, fluctuating levels of severity and a complete inter episodic remission. Persons suffering from bipolar disorder experience extreme shifts in mood, energy and activity levels. To assess & compare the burden, quality of life and depression in caregivers of persons suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is a comparative study, total sample size is 100. Fifty person's suffering from schizophrenia and fifty persons suffering from bipolar disorder and their caregivers attending the psychiatric outpatient dept. of SBMCH fulfilling the study criteria and gave informed consent were included in the study. Inclusion criteria, age between 18 and 60 years & diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder as per ICD 10 DCR. Exclusion criteria, Presence of comorbid physical illness including neurological illness & Presence of any substance abuse/dependence except that of tobacco. Caregiver burden: The caregiver burden was found to be significantly higher among the caregivers of persons suffering from schizophrenia, with a mean normalized BAS score of 64.25 against a score of 57.92 for bipolar subjects. The study showed that though the burden of care of bipolar disorder is less when compared to schizophemia, it cannot be neglected. To conclude the study showed that though the burden of care of bipolar disorder is less when compared to schizophemia, it cannot be neglected.