Strategies for coping with family members of patients with mental disorders.

Objective: to identify the coping strategies of family members of patients with mental disorders and relate them to family member sociodemographic variables and to the patient's clinical variables.

Method: this was a descriptive study conducted at a psychiatric hospital in the interior of the state of São Paulo, with 40 family members of hospitalized patients over the age of 18, and who followed the patient before and during hospitalization. We used tools to characterize the subjects and the Folkman and Lazarus Inventory of Coping Strategies.