Coping strategies of caregivers towards aggressive behaviors of persons with severe mental illness.

Coping strategies of caregivers towards aggressive behaviors of persons with severe mental illness. Asian J Psychiatr. 2018 Apr 24;35:29-33 Authors: Madathumkovilakath NB, Kizhakkeppattu S, Thekekunnath S, Kazhungil F Abstract Aggression is one of the chief determinants of caregiver burden in severe mental illnesses. Clinical and treatment implications of aggression in mental illness are predominantly studied in perspectives of mental health care professionals. Coping style of caregivers towards aggression of persons with mental illness is understudied. So we studied coping strategies used by caregivers of patients with severe mental illness towards aggressive behaviors of patients and relationship between aggressive behavior and coping strategies. We assessed two hundreds and seventy caregivers of patients with severe mental illness attending outpatient psychiatry department using Modified Overt Aggression Scale and the Ways of Coping Scale - revised. 95.6% of the caregivers perceived verbal aggression followed by aggression against property (67%), auto aggression (33.7%) and physical aggression (25.6%). The study revealed that adaptive coping strategies - planful problem solving and seeking social support were used by 40% each of caregivers to deal with aggressive behavior. Only 4.4% of caregivers resorted to escape avoidance which is maladaptive coping strategy. Though adaptive strategies were used by caregivers these were not use...
Source: Asian Journal of Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Asian J Psychiatr Source Type: research