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Predicting caregiver burden in first admission psychiatric patients

2-year follow-up results

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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

The aim of the study was to identify the best predictors of the course of burden during a 2-year follow-up period. The study is part of the Munich 5-year follow-up study in relatives of first admitted patients with schizophrenia or depression.

Method

A cohort of 60 key relatives was assessed based on a transactional stress model concerning objective and subjective burden, well-being, self-rated symptoms and global satisfaction with life. The stressors were defined as patients’ illness variables, and the potential predictors included different dispositions and resources of the relatives. Effects were analyzed by regression models. In a first step, the main predictors of burden were identified at each assessment. In a second step, the resulting predictors were included in a Generalized Linear Modeling procedure.

Results

Caregivers’ burden improved significantly, but well-being and self-rated symptoms remained elevated. In the final regression model, expressed emotion, neuroticism, generalized negative stress response and life stressors resulted as the best predictors of burden. The effects were rather time invariant than time dependent.

Conclusion

In order to effectively work on long-standing unfavourable patterns of stress response, family interventions should be long-term and targeted to vulnerable caregivers who could be identified by virtue of their personality traits.

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Acknowledgments

Part of the research project was supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research in the context of the German Research Networks on Schizophrenia and Depression/Suicidality. The author thanks the involved psychiatrists for placing the clinical ratings of the patients at the author’s disposal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Nußbaumstr. 7, 80336, Munich, Germany

    Anne Maria Möller-Leimkühler & Michael Obermeier

Authors
  1. Anne Maria Möller-Leimkühler
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  2. Michael Obermeier
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Correspondence to Anne Maria Möller-Leimkühler.

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Möller-Leimkühler, A.M., Obermeier, M. Predicting caregiver burden in first admission psychiatric patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosc 258, 406–413 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-0818-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-0818-7

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