Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka, Bangalore.

ANNEXURE II
PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF SUBJECTS FOR DISSERTATION.

Name of the candidate and address Steffi Elizabeth Behanan

(in block letters)
Space Town Housing Complex, Block4, Flat-1M, V.I.P road, Raghunathpur,
Kolkata-700052, West Bengal.
Name of the Institution
St.Agnes Centre For Post Graduate
Studies and Research
Course of study and subject
2 Year M.Sc in Clinical Psychology

Date of admission to course

30/09/2010

Title of the topic

Experience of Caregiving and General

Health among the Caregivers of the
Mentally Ill.

Brief resume of the intended work:

6.1 Need for Study

6.2 Review of Literature

6.3 Objectives of the study
7

Material and methods:

7.1 Source of data
7.2 Methods of collection of data
(including sampling procedure, if
any)
SEPARATE ENCLOSURE
ATTACHED
7.3 Does the study require any
investigations or interventions to be
conducted on patients or other
humans or animals? If so, please
describe briefly.
YES
7.4 Has ethical clearance been
obtained from your institution in case
of 7.3?

Separate Enclosure Attached

List of References

SEPARATE ENCLOSURE ATTACHED

Signature of candidate

10

Remarks of the Guide

11

Name and Designation of (in block letters)

11.1 Guide

Dr. V. Premanand

11.2 Signature

11.3 Co-Guide (if any)

11.4 Signature

11.5 Head of Department

12

11.6 Signature
12.1 Remarks of the chairman and Principal

12.2 Signature

Dr.V. Premanand

Title:
Experience of caregivers and General Health among the Caregivers of the Mentally Ill.

Need for study:

Biopsychosocial model of Major Depression, Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder has
revealed psychosocial variables contributing to relapses. It has been suggested that
psychosocial factors like negative attitude from others, can increase the risk of relapse.
Increasing relevance of caregiving factor led to conceptualization of experience of
caregiving by Szmukler (1996) and it is seen that caregiving experience is a better predictor
of psychological well-being. Stress experienced by caregiver manifests as morbidities which
inturn influences their mental health and attitude towards patients.
Aim of my study is to find out the degree of association between the individual
domains of the Experience of Caregiving Inventory (ECI ) and clinical variables in General
Health Questionnaire(GHQ). Thus, enabling us to understand which symptom is strongly
associated with the domains of ECI as in previous studies it has been shown that patients
experiencing stigma(domain of ECI) to be associated with depressive symptoms. This will
help categorizing the problems of the caregivers based of the various constituents of the ECI.
Techniques of family intervention for caregivers, alleviates them of various symptoms
and improves their attitudes which results in improvement in the patients as shown in a
study.This clearly signifies the relevance of the variables to be studied.

Review of literature:
Munish Aggarwal, Ajith Avasthi, Suresh Kumar and Sandeep Grover in (2009) (1)
studied the Experience of caregiving in Schizophrenia: A study from India, showed
that, maximum experience of caregiving inventory(ECI) score was seen in negative
domains of handling the difficult behaviour followed by negative symptoms, loss and
dependency and significant positive correlation was seen between total positive ECI
score and the level of education of patients and caregivers.
Abdul kareem Jika Yusuf, Folorunsho Tajudeen Nuhu, Akinsola Akinbiyi in (2009)(2)
studied the Caregiver burden among relatives of patients with schizophrenia in
Katsina, Nigeria, showed that most of the caregivers were female and a high level of
burden was found in the respondents. Schizophrenia is associated with a high level of
caregiver burden and efforts should be made to alleviate this burden for better
outcomes in both patients and caregivers.
Perlick, Deborah A., Rosenheck, Robert A., Miklowitz, David J., Kaczynski, Richard
Link, Bruce, Ketter, Terence, Wisniewski, Stephen, Wolff, Nancy, Sachs, Gary ,the
STEP-BD Family Experience Collaborative Study Group in (2008)(3) made a study on
Caregiver Burden and Health in Bipolar Disorder: A Cluster Analytic Approach
which was aimed at identifing caregivers at risk for adverse health effects associated
with caregiving, the stress, coping, health and service use of 500 primary caregivers
of patients with bipolar disorder were assessed at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Three

groups were identified and it was seen that the burdened caregivers had higher burden
and avoidance coping levels, and lower mastery and social support than effective and
stigmatized caregivers; stigmatized caregivers reported the highest perceived stigma.
The Effective and stigmatized groups had better health outcomes and less service use
than the burdened group over time and stigmatized caregivers had poorer self-care
than effective caregivers.
Lakshika Tennakoon, Dominic Fannon, Victor Doku, Seamus O'Cellaigh, William
Soni, and Mar Santamaria in (2000)(4) studied the Experience of caregiving: relatives
of people experiencing a first episode of psychosis, this study aimed at investigating
the dimensions of caregiving and morbidity in caregivers of people with first-episode
psychosis. The results showed that caregivers used emotional and practical strategies
to cope with participants' negative symptoms and difficult behaviours and experienced
more worry about these problems. It was seen that 12% of caregivers were suffering
from psychiatric morbidity as defined by the General Health Questionnaire.

Objectives of the Study:

To assess the Experience of Caregiving and the General Health among the
caregivers of the female mentally ill patients.
To find an association between the positive domains of the Experience of
Caregiving Inventory and the clinical variables of General Health
Questionnaire.
To find an association between the negative domains of the Experience of
Caregiving Inventory and the clinical variables of General Health
Questionnaire.

Source of Data :
A sample of 30 caregivers of the female mentally ill patients who have been
diagnosed for at least 5 years with Schizophrenia, Bipolar Affective Disorder or Major
Depression, will be administered the ECI and GHQ after their consent. Convenient sampling
design will be used to collect the sample. The sample will be collected from the various
hospitals in Mangalore, India.
Inclusion criteria: The first degree relatives of the female mentally ill patients who have been
the caregiver of the patient.
Exclusion criteria: Caregivers of Substance Induced Disorders will not be included in the
study and second degree relatives of the female mentally ill patients.

Tools used:
The Experience of Caregiving Inventory (ECI), Szmukler (1996).
General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Goldberg (1970s).

References
1

Munish Aggarwal, Ajith Avasthi, Suresh Kumar and Sandeep Grover,(2009)

Experience of caregiving in Schizophrenia: A study from India. International
Journal of Social Psychiatry.

Abdul kareem Jika Yusuf, Folorunsho Tajudeen Nuhu, Akinsola Akinbiyi, (2009)
Caregiver burden among relatives of patients with schizophrenia in Katsina,
Nigeria. South African Journal of Psychiatry, volume 15

Perlick, Deborah A., Rosenheck, Robert A., Miklowitz, David J., Kaczynski, Richard
Link, Bruce, Ketter, Terence, Wisniewski, Stephen, Wolff, Nancy, Sachs, Gary
the STEP-BD Family Experience Collaborative Study Group, (2008), Caregiver
Burden and Health in Bipolar Disorder: A Cluster Analytic Approach. Retrieved on
11th March, from http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Abstract/2008/06000/Caregiver
Burden and Health in Bipolar Disorder A.7.aspx-

Lakshika Tennakoon, Dominic Fannon,Victor Doku, Seamus O'Cellaigh, William Soni, and
Mar Santamaria, (2000) Experience of caregiving: relatives of people experiencing a
first episode of psychosis. The British Journal of Psychiatry.