Objective: To examine family functioning in the families of psychiatric patients.

Material and Method: Families of psychiatric patients and nonclinical families were compared. There were 60 families in each group. The instrument included a semistructured interview of family functioning and the Chulalongkorn Family Inventory (CFI), a self-report questionnaire designed to assess the perception of one’s family.

Results: From the assessment by semistructured interview, 83.3% of psychiatric families and 45.0% of nonclinical families were found to be dysfunctional in at least one dimension. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The average number of dysfunctional dimensions in the psychiatric families was significantly higher than in the nonclinical control group, 3.5 ± 1.9 and 0.98 ± 1.5 respectively, p < 0.0001. The CFI scores of the psychiatric families were significantly lower than the control group, reflecting poor family functioning. The dysfunctions were mostly in the following dimensions: problem-solving, communication, affective responsiveness, affective involvement, and behavior control. Psychiatric families faced more psychosocial stressors and the average number of stressors was higher than the control families, 88.3% vs 56.7% and 4.2 ± 2.7 vs 1.3 ± 1.47 stressors respectively, p < 0.0001.

Conclusion: Family functioning of psychiatric patients was less healthy than the nonclinical control. The present study underlined the significance of family assessment and family intervention in the comprehensive care of psychiatric patients.

Keywords: Family functioning, Family assessment, Psychiatric patients