Caregiver burden and burnout in partners of war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

War veterans diagnosed with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience serious difficulties in social, professional and family life. Consequently, their wives often become indirect victims of their husbands' dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to assess the caregiver burden and burnout level in partners of veterans suffering from PTSD, especially in cases where partners suffer from their own PTSD symptoms. The experimental group consisted of 154 wives or partners of war veterans treated for PTSD caused by the war trauma in University Hospital Mostar. The control group was made of 77 wives or partners of war veterans without PTSD. The study was based on the General Demographic Questionnaire, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, Bosnia-Herzegovina version, Caregiving and the Experience of Subjective and Objective Burden and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The wives of PTSD affected veterans scored significantly higher in all subscales of the Caregiver Burden Questionnaire and the Burnout Inventory. The results indicated that subjective demand burden, subjective stress and burnout were significantly higher in relationships in which both partners suffer from PTSD compared to couples in which only the veteran suffers from PTSD and couples in which none of the partners has PTSD. Living with a veteran diagnosed with PTSD places a heavy burden on the wife and poses a serious risk of burnout, which has to be taken into account in treatment planning.