Psychiatric Hospital of Athens Dafni, 7, Metamorfoseos str., Halandri, 152 34, Athens, Greece.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2012 Feb;47(2):331-7. doi: 10.1007/s00127-010-0325-9. Epub 2010 Dec 17.
Caregivers of patients with schizophrenia experience increased levels of psychological distress. This study investigated the impact of caring for patients with chronic schizophrenia on the mental health status of the caregivers and described the relationship between various socio-demographic and clinical characteristics and caregiving psychological distress.
The study was carried out at the Psychiatric Hospital of Athens. The Symptom Check List Revised (SCL-90-R) was administered to 87 caregivers of chronic schizophrenia patients and 90 healthy controls. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was administered to schizophrenia patients in order to assess illness severity.
The group of caregivers scored higher on the majority of symptom dimensions of the SCL-90-R than the control group. Clinical features of schizophrenia, i.e. duration of illness and PANSS positive and negative symptoms significantly predicted caregiving psychological distress. Caregivers' and patients' socio-demographic characteristics were not associated with caregivers' distress, with the exception of caregivers' sex: female caregivers experienced significantly higher levels of psychological distress than males.
The study suggests that clinical features of schizophrenia influence distress levels in caregivers of patients with chronic schizophrenia. The stronger predictors of distress appear to be female caregiver's gender, duration of illness as well as positive and negative symptomatology.
精神分裂症患者的照料者经历着更高水平的心理困扰。本研究旨在调查照料慢性精神分裂症患者对照料者心理健康状况的影响，并描述各种社会人口学和临床特征与照料心理困扰之间的关系。
该研究在雅典精神病院进行。87 名慢性精神分裂症患者的照料者和 90 名健康对照者接受了症状清单修订版（SCL-90-R）的评估。对精神分裂症患者进行阳性和阴性综合征量表（PANSS）评估以评估疾病严重程度。
与对照组相比，照料者组在 SCL-90-R 的大多数症状维度上的得分都更高。精神分裂症的临床特征，即病程以及 PANSS 阳性和阴性症状，显著预测了照料心理困扰。照料者和患者的社会人口学特征与照料者的困扰无关，但照料者的性别除外：女性照料者经历的心理困扰显著高于男性。
本研究表明，精神分裂症的临床特征影响慢性精神分裂症患者照料者的困扰水平。困扰的更强预测因素似乎是女性照料者的性别、病程以及阳性和阴性症状。
