Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt (Distinguished Professorship Funded By Dr. Senckenbergische Stiftung), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
BMC Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 28;22(1):511. doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04035-6.
Due to budget restrictions in mental health care, non-professional caregivers are increasingly burdened with the emotional and practical care for their depressed relatives. However, informal family caregiving is mostly a stressful role with negative consequences on the physical and mental health of the caretakers to the extent that they have an elevated risk of experiencing psychiatric disorders themselves. While psychoeducation for relatives of depressed individuals showed positive results both in terms of the caretakers' strain and the depressive symptoms of the affected person, there are major barriers to participate in presence in those programs. Digital programs might be a viable alternative. We found no empirically evaluated digital program available for informal caregivers of depressed patients.
An online program for relatives of depressed individuals has been developed including four interactive modules on 1) psychoeducation, 2) how to strengthen the relationship with the depressed person, 3) how to deal with the depressive symptoms of the patient, and 4) find the right balance between caring for the depressed person and self-care. We investigate if this self-help program is more effective when used with individualized versus automated e-mail support, and if both supported conditions are more effective than treatment-as-usual (TAU in form of written information material) in terms of the risk of mental diseases in caregivers. The primary outcome is the reduction of the caregiver's nonspecific mental distress as measured by the change of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale score from baseline to four weeks after randomization. Caregivers (n = 500:500:250) will be randomized to one of the three conditions.
Psychological support for caregivers of individuals with mental disorders such as depression should be offered as part of integrated services. There is a huge potential to develop and implement interactive online approaches to support informal caregivers of patients with depression to function in their multiple roles and to help them to remain healthy.
DRKS, DRKS00025241 . Registered 5 Mai 2021.
由于精神卫生保健预算限制，非专业护理人员越来越多地承担起照顾抑郁亲属的情感和实际护理工作。然而，非正式家庭护理主要是一个有压力的角色，会对护理人员的身心健康产生负面影响，以至于他们自己患精神障碍的风险增加。虽然针对抑郁患者亲属的心理教育在护理人员的压力和患者的抑郁症状方面都显示出积极的结果，但参加这些项目存在重大障碍。数字项目可能是一种可行的替代方案。我们没有发现针对抑郁患者非正式护理人员的经过实证评估的数字项目。
为抑郁患者的亲属开发了一个在线项目，包括四个互动模块，分别是 1）心理教育，2）如何加强与抑郁患者的关系，3）如何应对患者的抑郁症状，以及 4）在照顾抑郁患者和自我护理之间找到适当的平衡。我们研究了在使用个性化与自动化电子邮件支持时，这种自助程序是否更有效，以及在护理人员患精神疾病的风险方面，这两种支持条件是否比常规治疗（以书面信息材料的形式）更有效。主要结果是通过 Kessler 心理困扰量表评分从基线到随机分组后四周的变化来衡量护理人员非特异性心理困扰的减少。护理人员（n=500：500：250）将被随机分配到三个条件之一。
应该为患有精神障碍（如抑郁症）的个体的护理人员提供心理支持，作为综合服务的一部分。为了帮助他们在多个角色中发挥作用并保持健康，开发和实施支持抑郁患者非正式护理人员的互动在线方法具有巨大的潜力。
DRKS，DRKS00025241。注册于 2021 年 5 月 5 日。
