Schizophrenia and the rural Egyptian families

ABSTRACT

The emphasis on deinstitutionalization caused a shift of care of schizophrenic patients to their families.This study aims at examining family's burden of care of schizophrenic patients, family's attitude towards medical treatment- family's insight into the nature of schizophrenic illness and - the possible determinants of these attitudes in Egyptian rural family circles. 1- 140 1[st] degree relatives of schizophrenic patients were randomly selected during the year 1995. The prejudice of relatives against drug therapy was measured by a 13 statement scale originally developed in Greece, [1985] by Mantonakis et aI., and adapted by the author. 2- A number of factors, social and psychological, were examined as possible determinants of the negative attitude of relatives. These factors include age, sex, profession, education, positive family history and use of drugs 3- The burden of care was measured by a semistructured interview originally developed in India [1981] by Shila Pai and Kapur and adapted by the author. The prejudice against medications was very prominent in our sample. Poor education of relatives correlated to positive attitude towards drug therapy in disagreement with similar western studies. Both the socioeconomic and emotional burden were very prominent in a majority of the sample in agreement with similar western studies .As both negative attitude towards medication and burden of care of patient may play a very cucial part in determining patient compliance to treatment and hence the rates of relapse. They represent a point where clinical effort could be applied for the benefit of both patient and relatives. There is a need to develop an Egyptian family intervention program. It should be designed to use the resources of the family unit, it should be workable in rural population, and ingoing with our Moslem culture and background: