Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:614-619
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychiatric complications of family reunion after four decades of separation
WS Tseng, TA Cheng, YS Chen, PL Hwang and J Hsu
Department of Psychiatry, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96813.
OBJECTIVE: After four decades of separation due to civil war, many people
who had migrated to Taiwan from mainland China had the unexpected
opportunity to briefly visit their families in mainland China. A study was
conducted to examine psychiatric complications associated with these family
reunions following long involuntary separation. METHOD: Eighty subjects who
made the journey were given semistructured interviews investigating their
psychological experiences relating to the family reunion. The variables
investigated were sociodemographic characteristics, the subject's previsit
emotional condition, factors related to the family reunion experience, and
stress encountered during the visit. RESULTS: The survey indicated that
more than one-fifth of the subjects (22.5%) developed psychiatric
complications, mainly depression, immediately after the visit. Determinants
found to contribute significantly to the occurrence of emotional disorders
were previous ways of expressing homesickness, family members seen during
the reunion, family misfortunes that the subjects discovered, family
conflict encountered at the reunion, and tactics for coping with such
stressors. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest that family reunions
after long-term separation can be trauma- repairing experiences for some
but for others can lead to trauma reexperiencing and psychiatric
complications requiring mental health intervention.
