A study of expressed emotion, perceived stress and socio-demographic profile in patients of dissociative disorder

Background: Dissociation is understood as one of coping mechanism to deal with intense stressors. Individuals vary widely in their subjective response to a similar stressful event depending on number of factors including their family and social support system. So, authors tried to study the expressed emotion in patients of dissociative disorder along with other socio-demographic factors and its relation with perceived stress.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was done on 100 patients with primary diagnosis of dissociative disorder. Hamilton depression rating scale (HAM-D) was used to assess comorbid Depressive symptoms and Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A) was used to asses comorbid anxiety symptoms. Perceived stress scale (PSS) was used to assess the perception of stress. Family emotional involvement and criticism scale (FEICS) was used to measure perceived criticism (PC) and intensity of emotional involvement (EI).Results: Mean perceived stress in this study was 25.8. Mean score for perceived criticism (PC) was 16.5 and emotional involvement (EI) was 15.7. Both measures of expressed emotions were significantly higher in females and subjects belonging to joint families and rural area. In this study perceived stress by subjects was significantly (p=0.001) correlated to perceived criticism (Pearson r = 0.78) and emotional involvement (Pearson r = 0.77).Conclusions: High perceived criticism and emotion over involvement of family member was associated with perceived stress in dissociation patients.

Death Anxiety in Manic Depressive Patients.

Aim — The purpose of the study was to asses the differences between manic depressive patients and control subject on death anxiety scale. Method — Sample- 100 clinically diagnosed manic depressive patients taken from the mental hospital Varanasi and 100 well equated/matched control of the study. The age was 18-65years, and mean of the age was 41.5 years. A number of extraneous variable like the age, gender, academic qualification, social economic status were recorded. Tool — Thakur and thakur’s (1985) death anxiety scale was used.. This scale was reliable and valid. Procedure — The subjects were individually approached and personal profiles prepared. The first of all, the demographic information was completed and there after, given instruction. The purpose of the study was explained as an exploration of their personal views on topics related to death. The filled questioner was check and response endorsement and the items were scrutinized and error if any, control and incorporated in consultation with the subject. Result — The result of the present study was manic depressive patients score high on death anxiety scale than control subjects. Some more result to be discussed at the time of presentation.