Minor psychiatric disorders and their associations in family caregivers of people with mental disorders

Abstract This study aims to analyze the occurrence of minor psychiatric disorder and their associations in relatives of people with mental disorders. This is a cross-sectional study of 1164 relatives. For the tracking of minor psychiatric disorders the Self-Reporting Questionnaire Scale (SRQ20) was used, adopting 6/8 as cut-off point. Bivariate analyzes were conducted using Chi-squared test. Trends among strata of independent variables were investigated in relation to the outcome using nonparametric linear trend test. Statistic significance was defined as p-value < 0.05. Crude and adjusted binary logistic regressions were conducted using as a basis the hierarchical model developed through a systematic literature review. It was observed in the population a prevalence of 46.9% for minor psychiatric disorders. Higher prevalence of minor psychiatric disorders were strongly associated with the female gender, older age, first degree family ties, not having a paid work, lower education level, lower income, health problems, lower quality of life and feeling of burden. Many factors are related to the emotional and mental illness of family caregivers, demanding health services to be prepared to recognize and intervene in these situations.