Comparison of caregivers burden and psychological symptoms among the caregivers of patients diagnosed with psychotic and neurotic disorders

Psychotic and neurotic disorders are two important fields affecting mental health of individuals. Diagnosis and treatment of these disorders can take long periods of time and this may cause a burden on the individuals providing care to those people. The object of this research is to compare caregiver burden and psychological symptoms of the care givers of the psychotic patients with the care givers of the neurotic patients. In the research, Brief Symptoms Inventory and Caregiver Burden Inventory were applied to the individuals undertaking cares of 104 psychotic and 104 neurotic patient who have been applying to a psychiatrist's private clinic in Istanbul. According to results of the study, there were no statistically significant differences between caregiver burden and psychological symptoms based on the subjects demographic characteristics (p>0,05). It was found that the psychological symptom rate in neurotic patient's caregivers were statistically significantly higher than psychotic patient's caregivers (p=0,001). There was no statistically significant differences between two groups based on caregiver burden (p>0,05). In both groups, there was no statistically significant relationship between caregiver burden and psychological symptoms (p>0,05).