Marital life and family adjustment to multiple sclerosis

The functioning of a person affected with a chronic illness within a family is a complex and many-sided issue. As family members form a system reflecting a network of mutual relations, one of the members’ illness will affect all those interacting with him / her emotionally. Keeping high-quality marital relations also becomes extremely difficult. The research covered 108 families (216 person) divided into three groups.We used an interview, the FACES IV questionnaire based on the Circumplex Model by David H. Olson and Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) developed by Spanier. Presence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the family turned out to impact its functioning. The present research has found that the spouses’ gender of key importance for the family. Those families in which the woman was ill were characterized by excessive rigidity. On the other hand, where the multiple sclerosis sufferer was male, the system was overly chaotic. Based on the research, it is highly probable that the majority of families with multiple sclerosis sufferers adjust relatively well to the disease. It can be supposed that the majority of multiple sclerosis affected families have developed an adaptive mechanism that benefits the patient. Supposedly, successful coping with disease may be determined by the caregiver's gender. This does not mean, however, that such families are free from problems. The difficulties relate primarily to communication, excessive autocracy, developing their individuality and autonomy. Therapeutic support for the patient and his / her family should therefore be a vital component of the treatment process.