Expressed Emotion and Burdens of Care among Family Caregiver's of Patients with Dementia

Abstract

Background: Family caregivers of people with dementia face many problems as, stress, depression, anxiety and high level of burdens related to caregiving .The permanent burdens of caregiving is likely to generate negative expressed emotion toward the patient. Aim: the study aimed to assess the expressed emotion and burdens among family caregivers of patients with dementia. Study design: a descriptive study design was utilized to conduct this study. Setting: this study was conducted at the neuropsychiatric clinic at Beni-suef psychiatric hospital. Subject: convenient sample of 50 family caregiver's, admitted to the previously mentioned settings was recruited for conducting this study. Data collection tools: 1) socio-demographic questionnaire for patients with dementia and their family caregiver's. 2) expressed emotions scale. 3) Zarit burden scale .Results: the present study revealed that there was a higher level in expressed emotion and burdens among family caregivers. In addition, there were highly statistically significant positive correlations between caregiver's total expressed emotion and total burdens score. Conclusion: In the light of the current study, it can be concluded that family caregivers of patient with dementia had high level of expressed emotion and burdens. Recommendations: Designing a systematically continuous family intervention programs in psychiatric hospitals to provide proper information and psychological support that help the family caregivers to improve their understanding of the disorder, handle difficult thoughts and emotions, reduce negative expressed emotion and reduce sense of burden