Analysis of the state of resilience and the type of attitude to mental illness of a relative as factors of the functioning of the family system in the families of patients with dementia

To achieve the goal of the study, for definition the resilience of a dementia patient’s relative attitude towards the family member's illness, 153 relatives who lived together and/or cared for the patients were surveyed. Clinical-psychopathological research was implemented (using structured interviews) and psychodiagnostic research (using Connor-Devidsoon-10 resolution scale, in the adaptation of Assonov D.O., and the scale of structured interviews to determine the attitude of family member to the disease (psychiatric diagnosis) a relative) were performed. The study found that adaptation disorders were associated with a significant decrease in resilience in relatives of dementia patients. The highest level of resilience was characterized by re­latives with the absence of signs of mental disorders, a significant lower level of resilience was found in relatives who had signs of mental maladaptation, and the lowest level is in relatives with adaptation disorders. Relatives of patients with dementia with the absence of signs of mental disorders were characterized by a predominantly adequate type of attitude to a mental illness in a relative, with a significantly lower expressiveness of dramatizing and destructive types. A similar picture was observed among of people with signs of mental maladaptation. Instead, among relatives with clinically defined adaptation disorders were dominated by dra­matizing and destructive types of attitude towards a relative's disease, with a minimal representation of adequate type. The resolution indicator directly correlated with the severity of adequate attitude to the disease (moderate correlation, value rS=0.522), and reverse correlated with the severity of non-constructive types (correlations are weak, rS=-0.272). The identified patterns should be taken into account when planning therapeutic and rehabilitation measures for relatives of patients with dementia with various variants of mental adaptation disorders. Keywords: mental maladaptation, adaptation disorders, anxiety, depression, interpsychic and intrapsychiatric factors.