Volume 23, Issue 3
Bipolar Disorder and Family Functioning
Abstract
The bipolar disorder brings meaningful injury to the patient and his/her relatives. The aim of this study is to investigate the family functioning when one of its members has the bipolar disorder diagnosis, verifying and perceiving how the patients and his/her relatives deal with this disorder, identifying characteristics of common functioning among families which have a member with this diagnosis, as well as coming up with treatment methods. When there is a family member with bipolar disorder, it was possible to find – through a bibliographical study – that the other members are affected and have difficulties in intervening with the patient mainly in crisis situations. The families have common characteristics such as high emotional expressiveness, lesser degree of commitment, financial and communication difficulties.
Keywords
family functioning, bipolar disorder, bibliographical revision