ABSTRACT
Family members of first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients are regarded as key components of the patient's evaluation, recovery and treatment. This paper aimed to investigate 75 FEP caregivers' appraisal, psychological morbidity and quality of life in the initial phase of treatment in a specialized FEP outpatient program in São Paulo, Brazil, and evaluate the validation of the Brazilian version of the Experience of Caregiving Inventory (ECI). Caregivers were also scored through Self Report Questionnaire-20 and Short Form-36. It was found that 29% of them might be a case for minor psychiatric disorder, that the worst domains of quality of life concerned emotional aspects, vitality and bodily pain, and that they were particularly affected by patients' negative symptoms, dependency and difficult behaviors. Additionally, internal consistency of ECI was very satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha=0.95) with subscales ranging from 0.57 (stigma) to 0.94 (total negative score). The Brazilian version of the ECI is not only a facile, reliable and valid instrument to describe the experience of caring for a relative with serious mental illness. It offers mental health professionals an opportunity to access caregivers' global experience and their evaluation of a severe mental disease, as well as to predict their psychological suffering, which is harmful to both patient and caregiver.
