A Review on Quality of Life for the Caregivers of Schizophrenic Patient

Schizophrenia is a disturbance in thinking, emotions and volitions. Schizophrenia is characterised by significant impairments in the way reality is perceived and changes in behaviour related to: persistent delusions, persistent hallucinations, disorganized thinking, highly disorganized behavior, negative symptoms. Schizophrenia causes psychosis and is associated with considerable disability and may affect all areas of life including personal, family, social, educational, and occupational functioning. Caregivers play an important role in the support, management, recovery and care of schizophrenia patients throughout life. Caregivers not only manage the patient in home situation but also help in improving the condition and prevent from further relapse. While supporting the patients emotionally, financially and socially it often results in feelings of burden in caregivers. This affects the caregiver's overall life and specifically their quality of life adversely. The objectives of the review to evaluate the quality of life and social support system among family caregivers of a family member with schizophrenia and to identify factors associated with the quality of life. Caregivers should be encouraged to request assistance from other family members and friends in providing care, especially when caregivers are unemployed or long-time carers. This review shows that caregiver to seek support from other family member and friends and mental health care provider and helping families to maintain and enhance a supportive social network may provide useful means to improve caregivers' quality of life and minimizes factor that factors associated to quality of life.