Association of Burden of care in Caregivers of patients of Schizophrenia & Alcohol use Disorder with Anxiety, depression & quality of life: A cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Caregivers have a massive responsibility as they work nearly 365 days of the year but in contrast to these responsibilities there is lack of support given to them due to inappropriate resources. Due to lack of required resources at the community based mental health systems the caregivers are bound to take additional responsibilities and tasks. The most prevalent negative outcome of providing care is the emotional burden leading to symptoms like depression, emotional exhaustion, anxiousness, helplessness and lowered morale

AIM:

1.To assess the severity of burden of care and its association with depression, anxiety and quality   of life among primary caregivers of patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Schizophrenia.

1. To compare the burden experienced by primary care givers of patients in both the groups Schizophrenia or Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).”

 Methodology:

Study Design: Cross-sectional, Observational hospital based study  Study Setting: The research setting is at the Inpatient and outpatient departments of Psychiatry, Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital (AVBRH), Sawangi (Meghe), WardhaSample Size :120. Sample Size comes to 112; therefore round up figure of 120 (60 each of caregivers of Schizophrenia and AUD) will be taken. It was rounded up to 120 because many of the patients may either drop out from the study or refuse to participate midway. The caregivers of the patients will then be subjected to the following questionnaires:

1. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS)


2. (WHOQOL-BREF) SCALE


3. (ZBI) INTERVIEW SCALE


4. Pollack &Perlick Method (Pollack CP et al.,1991)

Clearance from the ethics committee will be obtained. Informed written consent of the patients/caregivers will be taken in local language.Socioeconomic data of the patients will be collected.

Expected results:  We will be able to assess at the conclusion of the study whether the caregivers of patients with AUD face a load of treatment is same as or higher or lower than that of patients with schizophrenia. It will address if caregivers have more chances to have a depression, high levels of anxiety  and inferior  life quality with a high care burden.

Conclusion:We will  get to  know Burden of caring  in Carers of Schizophrenia and Disorder of alcohol use and relations with  variablesinvolved viz. Anxiety, Depression and life’s quality. This will help in future planning for Research in this area.