Do informal caregivers in mental illness feel more burdened? A comparative study of mental versus somatic illnesses

Abstract

This study suggests that caregivers to care recipients with a mental and especially a combination of mental and somatic illnesses have a higher subjective caregiver burden compared with caregivers to care recipients with a somatic illness. Because the study is not representative of all caregivers, more research focusing on identifying and contacting informal caregivers is needed to confirm the result.

Family burden related to mental and physical disorders in the world: results from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys

“…The only exception to this pattern is the magnitude of financial expenditure, as, compared with men, women are less likely to be employed and more likely to earn less on the same jobs and raise children alone. 35,36 As reported in previous studies, there was evidence that family mental health conditions were associated with higher family burden than were physical conditions ''at the individual level'' 37,38 ; that is, in comparing the likelihood of a given caregiver experiencing burden as a function of whether their relative's illness was a mental disorder or a physical disorder. This finding is especially striking given that the analysis was biased against finding betweencondition differences in burden (as we asked respondents to tell us only about ''serious'' relative health problems), and we would expect this truncation of the severity distribution to reduce evidence of between-condition differences in burden.…”

Family burden, family health and personal mental health

“…Also, caregiver quality of life relates to patient outcome; for example, perceived high burden amongst caregivers of bipolar patients can adversely affect patient outcome [12]. Consequences of caregiving are typically explained through theoretical stress and coping models [13]. Perceived burden is positively associated with many difficulties amongst caregivers [14].…”

“…Thirdly, examinations of family burden have typically focused on one category of illness [21], whereas preliminary comparisons suggest the importance of considering differences in burden across categories of illnesses [13,21-23]. Compared with physical illnesses, mental illnesses bring comparable subjective (practical) burden levels but higher subjective (emotional) burden [13,21], with differences in burden and depression also documented across cancer, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease caregivers [23].…”

Support for Young Informal Carers of Persons with Mental Illness: A Mixed-Method Study

“…Caring for a person with an illness or a disability has an effect on the carer (Dahlqvist Jönsson, Skärsäter, Wijk, & Danielsson, 2010;Hastrup, Van Den Berg, & Gyrd-Hansen, 2011;Hedman Ahlström et al, 2008;Jankovic et al, 2011); feelings of loneliness and isolation can arise when someone becomes ill or disabled, and it can change the daily lives of family members, friends, and neighbors (Ali, Hedman Ahlström, Krevers, & Skärsäter, 2012;Nolan et al, 2001). That change can be just as devastating as the illness (Dahlqvist Jönsson et al, 2010;Hastrup et al, 2011;Hedman Ahlström et al, 2008). Previous research on young carers who care for disabled persons also points out that inappropriate level of caring can impact on young person's own emotional and physical health, educational achievement, and life changes (Frank & Slatcher, 2009).…”