Marital Satisfaction Among Spouses of Patients with Severe Mental Illness Attending Psychiatry OPD in AIMS, Kochi

A quantitative approach descriptive study was conducted to assess marital satisfaction among 60 spouses of patients diagnosed with severe mental illness. The objectives of the study were to; assess the marital satisfaction among spouses of patients with severe mental illness, find the association between marital satisfaction of spouses and their selected demographic variables and find the association between marital satisfaction of spouses and selected patient variables. The data was collected using socio demographic sheet of both spouses and patients, Couples Satisfaction Index (structured interview). The major findings of the study were, the marital satisfaction among spouses of 60 patients with severe mental illness was assessed. Satisfaction in marital relationship was found in 41(68.3%) of the spouses and 19(31.7%) were unsatisfied in their marital relationship. It was found that among the 60 subjects, 48(80%) were unhappy with their relationships and only 12(20%) of the subjects were happy in their marital relationship. Also it was found that, only 5% of the subjects feels the relationship as interesting, 1.7% as good, 3.3% as full, 3.3% as full and friendly, 8.3% as sturdy and 5% as hopeful and enjoyable. These findings reveals that the spouses of mentally ill clients are themselves at risk for psychological distress due to the burdens associated with caring for someone with mental illness; burdens such as the feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, fear, uncertainty, the possibility of re-occurrence of disease, the emotional strain on the spouse, and the individual's lack of energy.