Psychological Symptoms and Burden in Caregivers of Patients With Disorders of Consciousness
Psychological Symptoms and Burden in Caregivers of Patients With Disorders of Consciousness
Caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness are highly prone to developing mental health issues. The aim of this study is to investigate the psychological symptoms and care burden of caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC), and to examine which characteristics of patients were burden predictors to caregivers.
This is a multi-center cross-sectional study in China, from August 2021 to October 2022. Patients were assessed by Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R), and caregivers' anxiety, depression, and burden were assessed by State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y (STAI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI- II), and Zarit Caregiver Burden scale (ZBI). The comparison with patients' age and caregivers' age-matched subjects who were randomly selected and without DoC; intra-group comparison of caregivers for DoC was conducted. Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate the socio-demographics. One-sample t-test, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were executed to detect the difference between groups due to the distribution of each variable.
Inclusion Criteria:
- (1) Family caregivers without neurological, mental health, or learning disability history.
(2) Family caregiver with consciousness and capability of independently completing questionnaires.
Exclusion criteria: