Do stress and support matter for caring? The role of perceived stress and social support on expressed emotion of carers of persons with first episode psychosis.

BACKGROUND: Caring for a person with first episode psychosis (FEP) is a challenging and distressing task for the carers. The carers' stress in the early stage of psychosis can increase their expressed emotion (EE) while social support is hypothesized to decrease EE. However, the influence of stress and social support on carers' EE is not well understood in FEP.

AIM: To examine how the stress and social support shape expressed emotion in the carers of FEP.

METHODS: Seventy one carers of the patients with non-affective FEP were recruited from the inpatient psychiatry ward of a tertiary mental health care center in South India. The family questionnaire, perceived stress scale and multidimensional scale of perceived social support were used to measure their EE, stress and social support respectively.

RESULTS: Carers experienced high level of perceived stress, EE and poor social support. Perceived stress significantly increased EE (β=0.834; p<0.001) and social support did not significantly influence EE (β=-0.065; p>0.05). Perceived stress predicted 76 percent of the variance on EE (Adjusted R(2)=0.761).

CONCLUSION: The results emphasize high level of stress and EE in carers of patients with FEP that implies the need for appropriate psychosocial interventions to manage their stress.