[Trusting relations in family members of psychiatric patients]

On grounds of the literature about significant others of psychiatric patients it is to look for by what kind of characteristics different groups of significant others (mothers, spouses, others) may be differentiated and which variables characterize confident relationships and bonds. Significant others of psychiatric patients were investigated as well as the patients who belong to the diagnostic groups schizophrenia, depression or mania (RDC-criteria). They were investigated during and after an inpatient stay in one of the three psychiatric inpatient treatment centers in a large city of West Germany. For data analysis correspondence analysis was used, a method which is able to show correspondence between several characteristics by a computational as well as graphical way. Results show particularly two groups of significant others: burdened mothers and partners of depressed or manic patients. A confident relationship exists if daily contact was given as well as feeling attached to the patient and feeling burdened. Maintaining a confident relationship in spite of burden is explained by cognitive processes of attachment.