Depressed Patient's Family Functioning, a Study Based on McMaster's Model

The relationship between family context and environment with mental illness has been considered by researchers for many years. On the other hand disorganizations in family structure and function including conflict in roles, enmeshment in borders, alliance, affective involvement and loss of affective responsibility are main factors in development of depression. Here we studied the family functioning of patients with depression according to the theory of McMaster model and then compared with normal people. Fifty depressive patients were selected from two out patient psychiatry clinics. The control group was selected from normal students and employees of Tabriz University. All patients were asked to complete the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Family Assessment Device (FAD) questionnaires. The depressed people acted poorer in most dimensions of family functioning than normal people. Depressed people had poor functioning in general functioning (P < 0/001), communication (P < 0/001), affective responsibility (P < 0/001) and affective involvement (P < 0/001). However, there was no significant difference in problem solving (P = 0/69), control of behavior (P = 0/43) and role (P = 0/55) between the depressed patients and control group. Depressed patients have numerous dysfunctions in different aspects of their family functionings.