Family Functionality and Coping Attitudes of Patients with Bipolar Disorder

The coping of patients with prodromal syndromes prevents relapses, and the differences in coping strategies affect the results of bipolar disorder. The various functionality levels of bipolar disorder patients such as work, marital relations, parental abilities and social presentation are significantly related with how well they cope. The objective of this study was to determine the family functionality and coping attitudes of bipolar disorder patients. The study planned as a descriptive one was carried with 81 bipolar disorder patients. Personal description form, family assessment device and Coping Attitudes Scale were used as data acquisition tools. It was determined that the adaptive coping attitudes used most frequently by the patients were religious coping, positive reinterpretation, active coping, problem-focused coping and emotional focused coping, beneficial social support use, emotional social support use, planning, suppression of competing activities and restraint coping; maladaptive coping attitudes used most frequently by the patients were "focusing on the problem and venting of emotions and mental disengagement." It was determined that family functions affected the coping attitudes of patients and that the patients who evaluated family functions in a healthy manner made use of adaptive coping strategies more at a statistically significant level.