Shivers Carolyn M, Textoris Sophia
Human Development, Virginia Tech, 309 Wallace Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2021 Mar;24(1):38-64. doi: 10.1007/s10567-020-00331-3. Epub 2020 Oct 14.
The current study consists of a systematic review of the quantitative literature on siblings of individuals with mental illness (MI). Despite the prevalence of mental illness, little is known about how siblings are specifically affected in areas of psychosocial, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. The review yielded 56 studies that examined outcomes such as behavior problems, the sibling relationship, caregiving experiences, and knowledge of mental illness among siblings. The majority of studies from the initial search were focused on siblings-as-comparison group, examining siblings for risk factors for developing mental illness. In total, the study samples covered a sibling age range of 6-81 and a patient age range of 4-84. About half (k = 27) of the included studies had samples primarily composed of siblings of individuals with schizophrenia, leaving other MI diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, and mood disorders underrepresented. However, results from comparison studies were mixed-half found that the MI-Sibs had fewer negative outcomes than the comparison group, and half found that MI-Sibs had more negative outcomes. Multiple factors, including female sibling gender, greater severity of MI symptoms, and belief in the patient's ability to control their own behavior, were all related to more negative outcomes for MI-Sibs. Future work will focus on expanding the representativeness of MI-Sibs samples and analyzing experiences of both the sibling and the individual with MI.
本研究包括对关于患有精神疾病（MI）者的兄弟姐妹的定量文献进行系统综述。尽管精神疾病普遍存在，但对于兄弟姐妹在心理社会、情感和行为结果方面如何受到具体影响却知之甚少。该综述产生了56项研究，这些研究考察了诸如行为问题、兄弟姐妹关系、照顾经历以及兄弟姐妹对精神疾病的了解等结果。最初搜索的大多数研究都将兄弟姐妹作为对照组，研究兄弟姐妹患精神疾病的风险因素。总体而言，研究样本涵盖的兄弟姐妹年龄范围为6至81岁，患者年龄范围为4至84岁。纳入的研究中约一半（k = 27）的样本主要由精神分裂症患者的兄弟姐妹组成，其他精神疾病诊断如抑郁症、焦虑症和情绪障碍的样本代表性不足。然而，比较研究的结果不一——一半研究发现患有精神疾病的兄弟姐妹（MI-Sibs）的负面结果比对照组少，另一半研究发现MI-Sibs的负面结果更多。多个因素，包括姐妹性别、精神疾病症状的更严重程度以及对患者控制自身行为能力的信念，都与MI-Sibs的更多负面结果相关。未来的工作将集中在扩大MI-Sibs样本的代表性以及分析兄弟姐妹和患有精神疾病者双方的经历。
