RATIONALE: Understanding the emotional needs of spouses or others who are living with and caring for patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation may help improve the quality of life of both the caregivers and the patients.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the emotional needs of caregivers of patients who have undergone stem cell transplant.

OBJECTIVES:

• Assess expression of emotion, as a function of patient presence, among spousal or other cohabiting caregivers (CG) of post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients.
• Assess desynchrony among subjective (self-report) and expressive indicators of emotion, as a function of patient presence, in these participants.
• Correlate CG dispositional inhibition and desynchrony with physical and marital satisfaction in these participants.

OUTLINE: Caregivers (CG) complete written questionnaires assessing demographics, positive and negative affect, dispositional inhibition, marital satisfaction, and physical health over 45 minutes to 1 hour on day 1. CG then engage in two oral emotional expression exercises (on the topic of caregiving and the transplant) over 2 hours on day 2. Patients are present for one oral emotional expression exercise.

Participants are followed at 2 weeks and 6 months.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 60 patient/spouse couples will be accrued for this study within 18 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• In a marriage OR long-term, committed, heterosexual or homosexual, cohabiting relationship in which one member is post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

  • Patients must meet the following criteria:

    • At least 1 year since prior first bone marrow, stem cell, or umbilical cord blood transplantation

      • Allogeneic or autologous

    • Diagnosis of malignancy, myelodysplasia, or non-malignancy

    • No indication of possible or confirmed relapse

  • Spouse/caregiver (CG) must meet the following criteria:

    • Serve as the primary CG to the patient
    • No prior or concurrent neurologic disorder

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 21 and over

Performance status

• Not specified

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• Not specified

Hepatic

• Not specified

Renal

• Not specified

Other

• No concurrent major psychiatric disorder
• English-speaking

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Chemotherapy

• Not specified

Endocrine therapy

• Not specified

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• Not specified