Comparative study on caregiver burden and their quality of life in caring patients of Schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder

Background: With the advent of deinstitutionalization mentally ill patients are cared now being cared at community level by their families. Caregivers play an important and ever expanding role in caring mentally ill patients. Major mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder lead to great deal of morbidity and disability among the patients. Aims and objectives: –To determine the level of perceived burden and quality of life among caregivers of schizophrenia and bipolar patients. Materials and methods: Cross sectional study conducted in tertiary care center in Department of Psychiatry. Family Burden Interview Schedule Pai and kapur,1981 was used for burden assessment and WHOQOL BREF for quality of life assessment. Results and conclusions: More burden perceived by the caregivers of schizophrenia than bipolar patient’s caregivers and the difference was statistically significant(p=0.000). Better quality of life is seen in caregivers of bipolar patients than schizophrenia. Negative correlation of burden perception with all quality of life domains.