Schizophrenia in adolescents and the family system

Abstract

Schizophrenia in adolescents and the family system Empirical research shows that chronic diseases have specific, idiosyncratic functions in the family, and give real, psychosocial advantages (like tightening loosened family relations or helping solve interpersonal conflicts). This leaves the question - can schizophrenic disorders have similar function in the family system as a chronic somatic disease? We have analyzed systemic family traits in families with schizophrenic young patients (50 families). The reference samples were two kinds of families: families with schizophrenic adults and families without any chronic disease or chronic illness ("healthy families"). The subjects of analysis were coefficients of the systemic features, identified by factor analysis according to author's proposal. Oneway Anova was used to compare indexes between three groups of families. The results show that mental disorder in adolescents participates in the life of the whole family, having similar functions to the functions of chronic somatic diseases. They also suggest that, from the family members' point of view, schizophrenic disorders in a teenagers has different quality compared to schizophrenic disorders in an adult.