Family function and its relationship with clinical prognosis in patients with major depressive disorder

Abstract

To explore characteristics of family function in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and to evaluate relationships between family function and prognosis of major depressive episode (MDE). Methods: Forty-six patients with MDD were recruited in the outpatient or inpatient departments of Wuhan Mental Health Center from September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015. At the baseline, the patients and their co-resident family members were interviewed for psychiatric screening and diagnosis, and the family function of each patient's family was assessed by Family Assessment Device (FAD). After clinic service or hospitalization, the patients were followed up by telephone until they recovered from the MDE (within 12 months since the follow-up) or for 12 months if they had not achieved remission. Forty-two mentally healthy subjects, with no family members diagnosis for psychiatric diseases, and matched with MDD patients for age, sex, number of children, family roleand socioeconomic status, were recruited from a community. The family function of the MDD families and the controls were compared by independent sample-T test, and the relationship between family function and duration of the MDE was analyzed by Pearson's correlation. Results: MDD families exhibited higher FAD scores in 5 dimensions than control families except for affective involvement and behavior control (P<0.01). Patients with relatively good family function showed significantly shorter duration of MDE and higher proportion of remission within 6 months since the follow-up (P<0.01 and P<0.05). All the dimensions of FAD demonstrated significant positive correlation with the duration of MDE except for the behavior control. Conclusion: Families with MDD patients show impairments in multiple dimensions of family function, and the family functions of MDD patients are correlated with the prognosis of MDE. Improvement of family function may contribute to better prognosis of MDD.