두부손상 환자 가족의 우울에 관하여

Depression in the Relatives of Head Injured Patients

A clinical study of depression in the relatives of head-injured patients was conducted using the patients, medical records for review and Zung’s self-rating depression scale (S.D.S.). A total of 78 relatives were selected. They were eitherparents, spouses or siblings of the head injured inpatients who had been admitted to the -departments of neurosurgery and neuropsychiatry, Chonnam National University Hospital. The results of the depression in the relatives were as follows: 1. The scores of the S.D.S. were higher in the relatives of head-injured patients than in the normal control group. 2. The depression was characterized by high scores in the items of dissatisfaction, sleep disturbance, diurnal variation, psychomotor retardation hopelessness, personal devaluation and indecisiveness and by low scores in the items of suicidal rumination, constipation, crying spells, depressed affects and irritability. 3. S.D.S. scores were higher in the females than in the malesand in the age bracket of 20s to 50s than in any other groups. 4. The lower the educational level, the higher were the S.D.S. scores. 5. S.D.S. scores were much higher in the parents and spouses than in the siblings. 6. The longer the duration of posttraumatic amnesia (P.T.A.) of the patients the higher were the relatives’ S.D.S. scores 7. The longer the duration of the patients’ hospitalization the higher were the relatives’ S.D.S. scores 8. The relatives denied mental and physical dis abilities in the patients initially and went through an adjustment process analogeus to grieving and it took some time for the relatives to realize the full extent of the changes in the patients. 9. The greater the mental and physical changes in the patients following head injuries, the higher were the S.D.S. scores. The longer the duratioin of hospitalization, the greater were the mental and physical changes in the relatives.