The impacts on marital adjustment of caregiver burden in spouses of psychiatric patients

The descriptive study was carried out for determining the impacts on marital adjustment of caregiver burden in spouses of psychiatric patients. The study was carried out during April 15 – July 15, 2019 with the participation of the spouses of psychiatric patients hospitalized at the Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University Health Application and Research Hospital and Kahramanmaraş Necip Fazıl City Hospital as well as those who applied to the polyclinic for outpatient treatment (patients diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, substance-alcohol abuse disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatic symptom disorder). A total of 273 volunteering patient spouses were included in the sample group. Information Form, Marital Adjustment Test (MAT), Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) were used for data acquisition. The data were evaluated using IBM SPSS 21.0 software via Anova T-test, Kruskal-Wallis H Test, Mann Whitney U Test, Spearman's Rank Correlation Test. The inventory total score mean values of the spouses of the patients were determined as; MAT 36.74±12.85, CBI 40.46±18.36. A negative and strong statistically significant relationship was determined between the marital adjustment test and caregiver burden inventory (r=-0.642) (p<0.001). It was determined that the caregiver burdens of the spouses of psychiatric patients are at a moderate level, that their marital adjustment is bad and that marital adjustment is disrupted with increasing caregiver burden. It was reported that the caregiver burden of the spouses of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance-alcohol addiction are greater than those of the spouses of patients diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, somatic disorder and that their marital adjustments are worse. The results indicate that the caregiver burden is greater for female caregivers compared with those of male caregivers and that they have worse marital adjustment. Since it is considered that the caregiver burden may increase during the later stages of marriage due to the problems related with the symptoms of the psychiatric disorder which will in turn have an adverse impact on marital adjustment, it is suggested to determine the caregiver burden for the spouses of these patients in addition to planning and implementing interventions for improving their marital adjustment. Keywords: Psychiatric Disorder, Patient Spouse, Caregiver Burden, Marital Adjustment, Psychiatric Nursing