The comparison of burden between caregiving spouses of depressive and demented patients

The opportunities for a depressive or demented elderly patient to live at home are dependent on the availability of support. If the spouse is alive, her or his resources to care for the patient are an essential option. In this study we compared the burden of the spouses of depressive and demented elderly patients admitted to the University Psychogeriatric Clinic.

The Zarit Burden Interview was used when comparing the burden between the groups. Psychological distress was screened by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. The care and support given by the spouse was assessed by Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire. The spouse's stress related to the health state of the patient was evaluated by the Pearlin Caregiving Stress Inventory. Twenty-two spouses living with a depressive patient and 43 with a demented patient were included in the study.

The spouses of demented patients as a group were psychologically more stressed than the spouses of depressive patients. However, when demented patients were divided into two groups, in those admitted mainly for noncognitive symptoms related to dementia and in those admitted for memory assessment and diagnostic purposes, the burden of the spouses in the former group was higher than that of the group of depressive patients' spouses. No difference was found between the latter group of demented patient spouses and depressive patients' spouses. Both the patients and the spouses in the demented group were older than those in the depressive group. However, no correlation was found between stress of the spouse and her or his own age or the age of the patient either within the depressive or within the demented group. As expected, the function level of demented patients was lower than that of depressive patients. A correlation was found within both groups between low functional capacity of the patient and the stress of the spouse. In both groups the spouses who felt their own mental health to be poor were more likely to have high levels of burden.

Among the general psychogeriatric patient groups, the caregiving spouses of demented patients with noncognitive psychiatric symptoms are the most burdened group. However, spouses of depressive patients are as much burdened as those of demented patients with mild to moderate memory impairment. More support is needed for every spouse group caring for psychogeriatric patients.