Burden on the families of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a pilot study

This study aimed to explore the burden on the key-relatives of a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and a control sample of patients with major depression. The level of burden of relatives of obsessive-compulsive patients was moderate to severe in most of the explored situations, and did not differ significantly from that of the relatives of depressives. Social relationships were compromised in 74% of cases, and feelings of depression were recorded in 84% of cases. The level of subjective burden changed according to the relatives' sex, age and position in the family. The degree of objective burden correlated with the level of patients' disability, whereas that of subjective burden correlated with the severity of patients' obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.