Is there a correlation between family functioning and functional recovery in patients with acquired brain injury? An exploratory study

Background: Acquired Brain injury (ABI) is a very critical event in a family, as it is a highly distressing and traumatic experience, imposing a very deep reorganization of the whole family.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the possible correlation between the family aspects and the patients' functional outcomes after rehabilitation.

Methods: Fifteen patient-caregiver pairs were enrolled in the study. All the patients were assessed by using specific neuropsychological and functional scales, including the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales, before and after treatment.

Results: The results reveal that when the caregiver is the son or the spouse (p = 0,71), the perception of the emotional and physical burden is stronger, while the scores related to the burden were lower in the presence of other kinds of relationship. The family functioning seems to be connected to the burden level for the caregivers. Furthermore, there is a significant correlation between the improvements observed in the patients during their rehabilitative training and the family dynamics.

Conclusions: in our opinion, the family plays a key role in allowing a suitable compliance of the patient to the treatments, and supports the processes of adaptive reorganization.