Caregiving for Relatives with Psychiatric Disorders vs. Co-Occurring Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders

Despite the high comorbidity of psychiatric and substance use disorders, extremely little research has examined the experience of caregiving for relatives with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders (COD). The primary objective of the present article is to identify characteristics pertaining to care recipients, family caregivers, and the experience of providing caregiving associated with care recipients having COD vs. only having psychiatric disorders (PD). A U.S. community recruited sample of 1394 family caregivers of persons with COD or PD was employed. Chi-square and Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon tests were conducted. Compared to caregivers of persons with only PD, caregivers of persons with COD provided slightly less caregiving but experienced significantly greater negative effects from providing care. Caregivers of persons with COD were also more likely to fear care recipients would engage in multiple problematic behaviors. Most significant differences found in providing care to recipients with COD vs. only PD persisted when examining care recipients with severe psychiatric disorders or more moderate psychiatric disorders. Additional findings and treatment implications are described.