Burden and Expressed Emotion in Caregivers of Bipolar Affective Disorder-Mania: A Cross-Sectional Study

There is a paucity of literature on caregiver burden and expressed emotion among persons with bipolar affective disorder and its correlates in Indian settings. Data was collected from outpatient department of psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health and Hospital, Agra, regarding socio-demographic characteristics (e.g. age, gender, domicile), followed by Burden Assessment Scale (BAS), Family emotional involvement and criticism scale, and young mania rating scale from patients of bipolar affective disorder in manic episode and their caregivers. Descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation and unpaired “t” test was applied for continuous data and Chi square for categorical data. Spearman correlation was used to find the correlation. The mean age of patients with mania and their caregivers were 35.9 (SD = 9.8) and 43.5 (SD = 12.9) respectively. The mean total BAS score was 76.7 (12.3), which reflect a significant amount of caregiver burden. Age of the caregivers was positively correlated with total BAS scale respectively. Marital status of caregivers was negatively correlated with external support (− 0.6, p < 0.05). Education of caregivers was negatively correlated with Physical and mental (− 0.5, p < 0.05) and other relation (− 0.5, p < 0.05). Occupation of the caregivers was positively related to taking responsibility (0.5, p < 0.05). The presence of significant amount of burden of care and expressed emotion in patients with bipolar affective disorder in manic episode point out to the need for psychosocial support to the family.