Assessment of prevalence of psychiatric illness among care givers of cancer patients

Abstract

Background: Psychiatric illness is increasingly becoming a major public health problem. Caregivers, also referred as informal caregivers, are people who provide essential support to cancer patients throughout the trajectory of the illness. Hence; the present study was conducted for assessing prevalence of psychiatric illness among care givers of cancer patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 caregivers of cancer patients were enrolled. Complete demographic and clinical data of all the care givers was enrolled. Caregivers with previous history of any other systemic illness or any psychiatric morbidity were excluded. Psychiatric illness among caregivers was assessed. All the results were recorded and analysed by SPSS software. Results: 52 caregivers were affected with psychiatric illness. Out of 52 caregivers with psychiatric illness, 50 percent of the caregivers were souse/partner of the patient while 23.09 percent of the caregivers were the child. Among the 52 patients with psychiatric illness, 34.65 percent of the caregivers had panic disorder while 28.85 percent of the caregivers had depressive disorder. Conclusion: Caregivers of cancer patients are significantly affected psychiatric illness and hence; needs adequate psychiatric counselling.