Caregiver distress in schizophrenia and mood disorders: the role of illness-related stressors and caregiver-related factors
Engelsk titel: Caregiver distress in schizophrenia and mood disorders: the role of illness-related stressors and caregiver-related factors
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Författare:
Hegde, Aditya
;
Chakrabarti, Subho
;
Grover, Sandeep
Email: subhochd@yahoo.com
Språk: Eng
Antal referenser: 61
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 19030199
Sammanfattning
Background: Studies using the stress-appraisal-coping model to examine caregiving in schizophrenia and mood disorders are limited.
Aim: This study attempted to examine psychological distress among caregivers of persons with schizophrenia and mood disorders using the framework of the stress-coping theory. The impact of illness-related stressors and caregiver-related factors on caregiver-distress was also explored.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 176 of the 238 selected outpatients with remitted schizophrenia, bipolar and recurrent depressive disorders identified over a 1-year period underwent standardized assessments of psychopathology and functioning. Assessments of burden, appraisal, coping, social support, neuroticism, familial–cultural variables and psychological distress (as an index of caregiving-outcome) were also carried out among family-caregivers of these persons.
Results: High levels of caregiver-burden and caregiver-distress and a mix of positive and negative appraisal, adaptive and maladaptive coping, and high and low levels of perceived support among caregivers characterized the caregiving experience. Univariate analyses revealed that both illness-related stressors (symptom-severity, level of functioning, objective burden) and caregiver-related factors (subjective burden, appraisal, coping, perceived support, family-cohesion, neuroticism, time spent in caregiving) influenced caregiver-distress. However, multivariate analyses demonstrated that caregiver-related factors such neuroticism, perceived support, time spent in caregiving, subjective burden and negative appraisal had a much greater influence on caregiver-distress than illness-related stressors.
Conclusions: Although interactions between illness-related stressors and caregiver attributes appear to determine caregiver-distress, subjective perceptions and other attributes of caregivers may have a greater impact on distress. Therefore, interventions to reduce caregiver-distress should place equal, if not more emphasis on caregiver-related factors which influence distress.