PREDICTORS OF POSTBEREAVEMENT DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AMONG FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF CANCER-PATIENTS

The present study investigated two aspects of the sequelae of recent b ereavement among family caregivers following the death of their cancer patient: (1) the extent to which depressive symptomatology among fami ly caregivers measured following the death of their patient could be p redicted by their levels of depressive symptomatology in the months pr ior to death: their physical health, the setting in which the patient' s death occurred, patient age, gender of the caregiver, consanguinity, financial stress, social support from family and friends during the t erminal stage, impact of caregiving activities on caregiver's daily sc hedule, caregiver optimism, perceived esteem attributed to caregiving, the time between the prebereavement assessment and death, and the tim e between death and the postbereavement assessment; and (2) whether th ese same explanatory variables could successfully differentiate those bereaved caregivers whose psychological health improved during the fir st 3 months following bereavement from those who did not improve. A sa mple of 114 family caregivers of cancer patients were surveyed for app roximately 3 months before and 3 months after the death of their patie nt, A multivariate analysis of variance using the regression approach was undertaken to determine the primary predictors of postbereavement depressive symptomatology, In addition, a logistic regression analysis was used to att tempt to predict those caregivers whose depressive sy mptomatology would improve during the postbereavement period, Critical factors in determining levels of postbereavement depressive symptomat ology were caregiver optimism, prebereavement depressive symptomatolog y, and levels of social support from friends, Caregiver optimism and p rebereavement depressive symptomatology were important in predicting w hether caregivers' depressive symptomatology would improve or not. phy sicians must be aware that if the social history of a patient reveals that hei she is anticipating or has recently experienced the loss of a family member for whom they were the primary caregiver, this informat ion may be critical in determining whether the illness behavior exhibi ted by the patient has medical or psychosocial origins.