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Relationship between emotional distress in caregivers and health status in persons with multiple sclerosis

Department of Neurological Sciences, ‘La Sapienza’ University, Rome, Italy, carlo.pozzilli{at}uniroma1.it

L Palmisano

Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla, Rome, Italy

C Mainero

Department of Neurological Sciences, ‘La Sapienza’ University, Rome, Italy

V Tomassini

Department of Neurological Sciences, ‘La Sapienza’ University, Rome, Italy

F Marinelli

Department of Neurological Sciences, ‘La Sapienza’ University, Rome, Italy

G Ristori

Department of Neurological Sciences, ‘La Sapienza’ University, Rome, Italy

C Gasperini

Department of Neurology, Ospedale San Camillo-Forlanini, Rome, Italy

M Fabiani

Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

M A Battaglia

Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla, Rome, Italy

Caregivers of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) exhibit less satisfaction with quality of life with respect to the general population. To assess the relationship between depression in caregivers and health status profiles of MS patients, we examined data from 133 patients and their respective caregivers, as a part of a prospective randomized trial aimed to investigate the effectiveness of home-based care. Patients were evaluated at baseline and one year later with measures of physical and psychological impairment and health status (SF-36 Health Survey). Caregivers’ psychological morbidity was assessed by the Profile of Mood State (POMS) at the same time points. An improvement of patients’ health status as measured in four out of eight SF-36 dimensions was observed over the study period, while psychological morbidity of their caregivers did not change significantly. Depression in caregivers was related to physical, emotional and health status of the patients at baseline and/or at 12-month follow-up. Changes in the degree of depression of caregivers were also associated with changes in disability and health status of the patients. This study confirms and extends in a home-care setting previous findings on relationships between patients’ status and depression in caregivers. It suggests that the caregiver is an appropriate and independent target for more focused therapeutic strategies.

Key Words: caregiver • depression • health status • home-care • multiple sclerosis

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