Zebeda Abdelgwad Elsherif^1,, Sahar Behilak², Ayat Saif Elyazal Abdelraof¹

Background: The chronic burden of care to a patient with schizophrenia which produce negative emotions. As a result of de-institutionalization, caregivers have greater burden for the care of their mentally ill relatives. Objective of this study was to explore the relationship of relatives’ illness perception, expressed emotion and their burden in caring for patients with schizophrenia. Design: This study followed a correlation descriptive research design. Setting: This study conducted at inpatient and outpatient psychiatric department of Tanta University Hospital. Subject: The study subjects consist of 100 relatives of patient with schizophrenia. Tools: Tool 1 consisted of 2 parts: Part 1 Socio-demographic and general characteristics of studied participants, Part 2 Illness Perception Questionnaire-Schizophrenia Carers Version (IPQ-SCV), Tool 2 Family Questionnaire (FQ), Tool 3 Caregiver Burden Interview. Results: it was found that the studied participants had poor illness perception total score, it was found that the studied subjects (47%) had high emotional over- involvement level while it was observed that the two thirds of the studied relatives (61%) had high level of family criticism. majority of studied participants had moderate level of family burden. Conclusion: The results concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between family illness perception and family expressed emotion, also there was a significant positive correlation between family emotional expression and family burden level. Recommendations: this study recommended future studies to investigate distress and burden among caregivers with high emotion expression for intervention, reducing family stress and burden.

caregivers, burden, emotional expression, illness perception