Relieving the burden of family members of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Objective: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) burdens family members. Certain responses of family members to OCD augment their burden, namely accommodation and antagonism. Family interventions are successful in reducing severity of OCD but surprisingly, the impact of family interventions on the burden of family members has received little attention. Method: 16 family members of patients with OCD were treated - together with the patient - with our brief CBT family intervention focusing on accommodation, antagonism and normalizing the family relationship. Family burden, accommodation and antagonism were measured before and after the family intervention with: Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire, Impact on Relatives Scale, EuroQol five dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D), Family Accommodation Scale - Self Report and the Perceived Criticism Measure. Results: The burden of family members of patients with OCD was considerable and comparable to the burden of family members of patients with schizophrenia. Family burden was diminished after the brief dyadic family intervention and correlated to a decrease in accommodation. Conclusions: Our brief dyadic family intervention is promising in relieving the burden of family members of patients with OCD.