Mental disorder and caregiver burden in spouses: the Nord-Trøndelag health study

Mariann Idstad,Kristian Tambs,Helga Ask

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-516

Mariann Idstad, Kristian Tambs + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-516

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Abstract

BackgroundResearchers generally agree that mental disorder represents a burden to the family. The present study concerns the subjective burden of living with a person with mental disorder, more specifically the association between mental disorder in the index person and subjective well-being and symptoms of anxiety and depression in the spouse.MethodsData were obtained from questionnaires administered to the adult population of Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway during the period 1995-1997. The present study is based on a subsample where 9,740 couples were identified. Subjective burden in spouses of persons with mental disorder was compared with subjective burden in spouses of persons without mental disorder, using analysis of variance (ANOVA). All analyses were stratified by sex.ResultsAdjusting for several covariates, spouses of persons with mental disorder scored significantly lower on subjective well-being and significantly higher on symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to spouses of index persons without mental disorder. Although highly significant, the effect sizes were moderate, corresponding to a difference in standard deviations ranging from .34 - .51.ConclusionsOur study supports the notion that there is an association between mental disorder in one partner and subjective burden in the spouse, but not to the same extent that have been reported in earlier studies, as our results do not indicate that a large proportion of the spouses reach a symptom level of anxiety and depression that reflects clinical mental disorder.

Highlights

Researchers generally agree that mental disorder represents a burden to the family
Female spouses of cases with mental disorder scored about half a standard deviation (SD) higher on SCL and male spouses scored about one third of a SD higher on SCL compared to the remaining population, Table 1 Relation between mental disorders in the index person and spousal symptoms of anxiety and depression (SCL) and subjective well being (SWB)
Our results show that the spouses of these persons report higher levels of symptoms of anxiety and depression and lower levels of subjective well-being compared to the other population, and may support earlier studies which found that spouses of depressed individuals are at risk of developing depression themselves [23,25,26,27,28,29,30]

Summary

Introduction

Researchers generally agree that mental disorder represents a burden to the family. The present study concerns the subjective burden of living with a person with mental disorder, the association between mental disorder in the index person and subjective well-being and symptoms of anxiety and depression in the spouse. The global burden of mental disorder is increasing [1]. Depression alone is reported to be one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, accounting for 4.4% of lost years of healthy life due to premature death or disability (DALYs) on a global basis [2] and 6.2% of all DALYs in the European Region [1]. Prevalences for mood- and anxiety disorders within a 12-month period have been estimated to 9.5% and 18.1%, respectively, in the United States [3]. In Norway almost 10% of the adult general population has been suffering from a depression disorder and almost 20% from anxiety disorders during a 12 month period [4]. Prevalence for anxiety and depression in the European Region at any point in time has been estimated to 100 million people, corresponding to 11.5% of the population [1].

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