Prevalence of depression and anxiety in caregivers of patients in psychiatric wards (2006)

Introduction: Paying attention to mental health status of family members and caregivers of thepatients with mental disorders is really of importance regarding its pivotal role on controlling andprevention of the disease and its recurrence. In addition, it may have a role on the public mental healthstatus and prevention of mental disorders in patient's family members. In this study, we aimed toassess the prevalence and severity of depression and anxiety in caregivers of the patients in psychiatricwards.Materials and Methods: We designed a descriptive study. In this study, 307 samples wereachieved from all caregivers of patients in psychiatric wards of Noor hospital. We used questionnairesof Beck depression test and Zong anxiety scale. Data analysis was performed using t-test andcorrelation test by SPSS software.Results: Using Beck and Zong test, our data showed %71 and 7/9% of caregivers had somedegrees of depression and anxiety, respectively. We found statistical meaningful correlations betweensex of the patients and severity of depression in caregivers (P<0.018), sex of the patients and severityof anxiety in caregivers (P<0.007), between sex and severity of in caregivers (p<0.05), and also sexand severity of anxiety in caregivers (P<0.05). There was no significant correlation between durationof hospitalization and severity of depression (P=0.47, R=0.042) and anxiety (P=0.97, R-0.002) incaregivers. Finally we did not find any significant difference between anxiety and depression scores ofcaregivers and type of the patient mental disorder.Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are more common in caregivers of the psychiatric wards incomparison to normal population. This anxiety may load to harmful effects on the management ofpatients disease. Besides that, more prevalent anxiety and depression in female caregivers and thosewhose patients are female makes it more important to pay special attention to female depression andanxiety.