DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i10.070

Pages: 4162-4170

The demands of being involved in the care of a seriously mentally ill relative have both an emotional as well as practical impact on the caregiver. Care giving is a chronic stressor and different coping methods are used to handle such a situation. To assess burden of Caregiver of patients of Bipolar Affective Disorder. To assess coping strategies adopted by the Caregivers of patients of Bipolar Affective Disorder. To study the relationship of burden and coping strategies in Caregivers of Bipolar Affective Disorder. To assess the relationship of burden of the caregiver with the global assessment of functioning of patients of Bipolar Affective Disorder. The study was conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, Assam MedicaI College and Hospital, in Dibrugarh (Assam) with a sample size of 30 primary caregivers of equal number of patients of Bipolar Affective Disorder (BPAD). Diagnosis of BPAD was made as per guidelines listed in ICD-10. The study was of cross sectional, exploratory research design conducted with the use of scales and questionnaire. Caregivers with lower burden in BPAD had resorted to coping strategies like Positive cognitive, Problem solving and Religious coping strategies significantly more than the caregivers with higher burden. On the other hand those with higher burden used coping strategies like negative coping, external attribution and avoidance significantly more than those with lower burden. A positive correlation was found between caregiver’s burden and level of impairment in functioning of patients of BPAD. Coping mechanisms like cognitive coping, problem solving and religious coping can decrease the burden of illness. Therefore they must be analyzed before clinical interventions, to improve the coping skill of the caregiver.