Volume 24, Issue 104, July - August, 2020

Is Marriage Solution for Persons with Schizophrenia?

Prakash B Behere¹, Kiran Verma², Amit B Nagdive^3♦, Himanshu Mansharamani⁴, Aniruddh P Behere⁵, Richa Yadav⁶, Rouchelle Fernandes⁷

¹Former Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil University, Kolhapur (MS); Director Professor,Department of Psychiatry Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Director School of Advanced Studies, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University), Sawangi, Wardha442107, (Maharashtra) India. Email: pbbehere@gmail.com
²Former Resident , Department of Psychiatry ,Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences ,Sevagram -442102, Wardha, Maharashtra, India; Email: kiransingh179@yahoo.com
³Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University), Wardha –442107, Maharashtra, India; Email: amitnagdive77@gmail.com
⁴Consultant Psychiatrist, Vishesh Hospital, Indore, MP, India; Email: himanshu.mansha@gmail.com
⁵Helen Devos Children’s Hospital ,Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Grand Rapids MI USA, Adjunct Faculty Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University), Wardha-442107, India; Email: aniruddhbehere@gmail.com
⁶Assistant Professor , Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, OU College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Adjunct Faculty , Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University) , Wardha, India; Email: drrichayadav@gmail.com
⁷Resident, Department of Psychiatry, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University), Wardha –442107, Maharashtra, India. Email: rouchelle795@gmail.com

^♦Corresponding author
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University), Wardha –442107, Maharashtra, India; Email: amitnagdive77@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Context: Marriage is considered as an important life event which not only affects the physical status but also psyche of a person. There is a common belief in our society that marriage can cure mental illness, but this is rather a topic of discussion. Aims: Aims and objectives of the study were to assess the effect of marriage on clinical outcome, severity of illness, quality of life and disability among the married patients with schizophrenia and to compare same with never married with schizophrenia. Setting and Design: It is a retrospective Case Control study, conducted on outpatients and inpatients of Psychiatry dept. at a tertiary health care centre in rural Central India for a period of 12 months in 2018. Methods and Material: A total of 80 subjects (40 cases and 40 controls) by random sampling were included in the study. Assessment was done using Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Post Graduate Institute (PGI) Quality of Life Scale and Disability Assessment Scale (DAS). Statistical analysis used: Statistical analysis was done by using appropriate tools. Results: Most of the subjects were suffering with paranoid schizophrenia, were having arranged marriage and did partially disclosed information about the illness to in-laws and spouse before marriage. It was found that there is a common belief in society that marriage can cure mental illness. More relapses were seen in married males with low per capita income, education levels and having positive family history of mental illness. Majority of separations were seen within two years of marriage and among female subjects. Subjects suffering with paranoid schizophrenia had less separation rates than subjects suffering with other types of schizophrenia and having a child was protective factor for separation. Conclusions: There is a high need to address the psychological stress due to adjustments in marriage which can be detrimental to the mental health of persons already suffering with a mental illness.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Marriage, Disability, Separation

Medical Science, 2020, 24(104), 2663-2674

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