Psychiatric morbidity and coping in caregivers of patients with substance use disorder

Caregivers of patients with substance use disorders often experience psychological distress, but psychiatric morbidity and coping, including religious coping, remain under-studied in Indian treatment settings.

To assess psychiatric morbidity, coping strategies, and religious coping among caregivers of patients with substance use disorders and examine whether coping partly explains the association between addiction severity and caregiver psychiatric morbidity.

The hospital based cross-sectional study included 100 caregivers of patients diagnosed with mental and behavioral Disorders due to psychoactive substance use as per International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision. Addiction severity was measured using the Addiction Severity Index Lite. Caregiver psychiatric morbidity was assessed using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision Diagnostic Criteria for Research. Coping was assessed using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire and the Brief Religious Coping Scale.

Psychiatric illness was present in seventy-one percent of caregivers, with moderate depressive disorder being most common (29%). Lower positive religious coping (p = 0.04) and higher negative religious coping (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with psychiatric illness. Maladaptive coping strategies like distancing (p = 0.012), self-controlling (p = 0.009), and escape-avoidance (p < 0.001), correlated positively with psychiatric morbidity. In contrast, adaptive strategies such as positive reappraisal, planful problem-solving, and seeking social support were negatively associated with psychiatric illness (all p < 0.001). Exploratory mediation analyses suggested that coping partly explained the addiction severity morbidity association.

Psychiatric illness is common among caregivers of patients with substance use. Adaptive coping and positive religious coping may offset this risk.