Symptom burden in cancer patients and caregiving experience

Abstract

Introduction Cancer patients typically experience multiple physical and psychological symptoms that may result from the disease or from treatment. The most common are pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, breathlessness, nausea, constipation, diarrhea and anorexia. The high symptom burden profoundly affects the patient but also the caregiver, which frequently experiences anxiety and depression. Objectives Identify a correlation between patient symptoms and caregiver emotional disturbances. Aims The aim of the present study was to improve the identification of vulnerable family caregivers who could require psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological support. Methods For this purpose, all eligible patients and caregivers were approached during a regularly scheduled patient clinic visit at a Portuguese psycho-oncology unit. Data was collected using the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21. Sociodemographic and clinical data were also collected. Statistics were performed with SPSS. Results High levels of psychopathology in caregivers were associated with female caregiver sex and worse patient physical and emotional well-being. Uncontrolled pain was related with high scores in DASS-21. Conclusions Cancer patient's caregivers experienced high levels of anxiety and depression associated with worse patient well-being. The psychological stress of caregiving has a negative impact not only on the health of the caregivers but also on cancer patients. Early interventions directed at patient symptoms and caregiver support may improve quality of life in this population.