[Family style and psychiatric acuity: family functioning assessment of an hospitalized population in a Emergency department].

Objective: The study intends to include the evaluation of family styles while the patients are admitted at a hospital dedicated to the emergency (SPDC).

Methods: The sample of the study involved patients of a SPDC and their families. The clinical assessment has been conducted through the use of ICD-IX, DSM-5 and BPRS. During the stabilization phase, both patients and families have been administered a socio-demographic report and the FACES IV. The FACES Questionnaire assesses the family through eight scales (two scales indicating health-oriented functioning: Balanced Cohesion, Balanced Flexibility; four scales indicating problematic functioning: Disengagement, Hyper-involvement, Rigidity, Disorganization; a scale for Family Communication; a scale for Family Satisfaction).

Results: 35,7% has shown to be health-oriented in the sample. Patients have shown a significantly higher problematic perception of their family, compared to their parents, being more involved in the relationship. The patients have a disengaged-disorganized family style, parents have an average-unbalanced style. The age of patients over 30 correlates significantly with a dysfunctional view of their family relationships.

Conclusions: Faced with an event that requires hospitalization, families have a greater tendency toward dysfunctionality, with a more painful perception than their children, partially counterbalanced by a greater functionality of the parents. The temporal element, the age of the patients and the duration of the illness seem significant elements in favor of a greater family problematic.