The Prevalence, The Profile And The Impact Factors Of The Depression And Anxiety In The Family Caregivers Of The Stroke-patients

ObjectiveTo explore the prevalence, the profile and the impact factors of the depression and anxiety in the family caregivers of the stroke-patients, in order to provide evidences for developing special interventions to improve the mental health of the caregivers.MethodsThe demography and general medical condition of the stroke -patients and their family caregivers were collected by using a self-developed form. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) were used to access the depression and anxiety of the family caregivers. for the stroke-patients, the National institute health stroke scale (NIHSS) was used to evaluate the neurologic deficits, the Barthel Index (BI) was used to evaluate the daily activities, the HDRS and HARS were used to evaluate the depression and anxiety, and the Mini mental state examination (MMSE) was used to evaluate the cognitive function.Results1. The HDRS score of the family caregivers was 19.57±8.23 (M±SD). In the caregivers, 38 % of them has depressive symptoms, 46 % possible depressive symptoms, and only 16% without depressive symptoms. Further analysis of HDRS factors showed that the sleep disorders got the highest score, followed by the anxiety/body, weight change, retardation, hopelessness, diurnal flucturation and cognitive deficits. Moreover, the score of each item of the HDRS was sequenced as following: light sleeping, difficult into sleeping, somatic symptoms, early wake-up, depressed mood, somatic anxiety, psychogenic anxiety, sex symptoms, weight, decreasing ability feeling, work and interest, sense of hopelessness, gastrointestinal symptoms obsessive-compulsion symptoms, and change, the inferiority, hypochondria, inspiration, guilty feeling, hysteresis, suicide, self-knowledge force, personality or reality disintegrated, paranoid symptoms.2. The HARS score of the family caregivers was 15.33±5.79 (M±SD). In the caregivers,57% of them were anxiety,39% were possible anxiety and only 4% without anxiety. Each factor score display somatic anxiety average is higher. Each single score from high to low sorting, In turn for insomnia, depression mood, memory and attention disorders, anxiety mood, the autonomic nervous symptoms, nervous, respiratory system symptom, cardiovascular system symptoms, muscle system symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, feeling system symptoms, the genito-urinary system symptoms, talks with behavior, fear.3. In the family caregivers of the stroke-patients, the HDRS score was positively related to the self-awareness health condition, the time for caring, and the HDRS score or the MMSE score of the stroke-patients.4. In the family caregivers of the stroke-patients, the HARS score was positively related to the score of BI, HDRS or HARS of the stroke-patients.Conclusions1. Most family caregivers exist different levels of depression and anxiety conditions. The depression and anxiety was charaterized by the insomnia and somatic anxiey respectively.2.The impact factors of the depression of the family caregivers includes the self-awareness health condition, the time for caring, HDRS score and MMSE score of the stroke-patients.3. The impact factors of the anxiety of the family caregivers includes the BI score, HDRS score and HARS score of the stroke-patients.