Abstract
Mental disorders are widely recognized as a major contributor to the global burden of disease worldwide. In this affective disorders or mood disorders are more prominent, affecting about one in ten thousand during their life time. Caregivers are one of the three basic components of treatment along with the patient and healthcare professionals. Attitude and beliefs regarding mental illness are moulded by personal knowledge, knowing and interacting with those living with mental illness, cultural stereotypes and other factors. Objectives of the study: (1) To assess the knowledge and attitude of the caregivers of patients with affective disorders. (2) To determine relationship between knowledge and attitude of caregivers of patients with affective disorder. (3) To determine the association of knowledge and attitude with selected baseline variables of caregivers of patients with affective disorders. Materials and methods: Descriptive correlative design was used for the study. The data were collected from 94 caregivers of patients with affective disorders admitted to psychiatric wards of Father Muller Mental Health Center, Mangalore. The data were collected by knowledge questionnaire on affective disorders and attitude scale. Results: The findings the study showed that 55.3% of the subjects had very good knowledge and majority (77.7%), of the subjects had favourable attitude towards patients with affective disorders. There was a moderate positive correlation between knowledge and attitude of caregivers of patients with affective disorders, r = 0.5 (p < 0.001*). Association was found between knowledge and number of hospitalizations of patients with affective disorders (p = 0.004*) and between attitude and educational status of the subjects (p = 0.034*). Conclusion: Knowledge influences attitude. Appropriate educational and regulatory interventions in the clinical setting will improve the knowledge and attitude.
Keywords: affective disorders, attitude, caregivers, knowledge
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