Marital adjustment and qualitiy of life of spouses of patients with and without a bipolar disorder diagnosis

In this study, it is aimed to examine the marital adjustment and qualitiy of life of spouses of patients with and without a bipolar disorder diagnosis. The sample of the study consisted of 95 spouses of patients (43 males and 52 females) diagnosed with BPD and 95 spouses of patients diagnosed with GAD who had applied to the Cukurova University Psychiatric Clinic in 2017-2018. Sociodemographic information of the participants was collected and DAS and SF-36 were administered. According to the results there were a statistically significant mean difference between the scores of spouses of patients with BD and spouses of patients with GAD in terms of Physical Functioning and Energy/fatigue subscales of SF-36 and Affectional Expression subscale of DAS scores. Among the spouses of patients who had BPD diagnosis, the mean scores of total DAS, Dyadic Satisfaction, Dyadic Consensus, and Affectional Expression of the males were found higher than the females. Moreover, according to various sociodemographic information, significant differences were found between the mean scores of SF-36 and DAS subscales of patients with BD and those with GAD diagnosis. The findings were discussed on the basis of relevant literature. Keywords: bipolar disorder, marital adjustment, quality of life