Caregiver's Burden on Patients with Neurological Disorders

Caregiver burden refers to considerable stressors who have been found to have worse emotional well-being, more difficulty with care giving tasks (Cochrane JJ, 2007) and more distress in general. The partner has an increased responsibility to provide support (which may be perceived as stressful), receiving support is particularly relevant for partners. The study was carried out in the Neurology out-patient setting in a tertiary care hospital. Thirty consecutive patients receiving in-patient care were included in the study. The anxiety and depression levels of these individuals were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) is a 24-item multi-dimensional questionnaire was used to assess the caregiver burden. Time Dependence domain has the highest occurrence of burden based upon the aggregation of the scores of developmental, physical, social and the emotional burden from all study participants. The presence of depressive symptoms (HADS) in caregivers showed a strong positive correlation with the caregivers? level of burden (CBI) (r = 0.978, p = 0.000), while presence of anxiety symptoms correlated negatively with the caregivers? level of burden (r = ?0.472, p = 0.041). The findings of this study show the need for the provision of accessible, affordable care for patients with neurological disorders and support for the family caregivers. It is important to explore caregiver's emotional turmoil as it helps in exploring their burden which can have impact on the patient's illness and functioning apart from their own.