Family caregiving in schizophrenia: Domains and distress

This article focuses on (1) the dimensionality of the caregiving concept; ( 2) the relation between the identified caregiving dimensions and characteri stics of; the patient, the caregiver, and their relationship; and (3) the r elation between caregiving dimensions and caregiver distress. Findings are based on data from 480 members of the Dutch family organization for patient s: with schizophrenia/chronic psychosis who completed (1) the Involvement E valuation Questionnaire (IEQ), which assesses general information (e.g., ho usehold characteristics), caregiving, help seeking, coping and distress, an d (2) a questionnaire comprising questions on onset and course of the patie nt's disorder and symptoms characteristic of schizophrenic disorders. Four caregiving domains were found: tension, supervision, worrying, and urging. These domains were strongly related to the patient's symptomatology, contac t between the relative and the patient's mental health professional, and th e number of hours of mutual contact between the patient and the relative. T he connection between patient, caregiver, and relationship variables and th e caregivers' distress could be explained substantially by the overall care giving score. Our findings suggest that caregiving tasks and problems may b e diminished and related distress lowered by reducing the patient's symptom atology, increasing relatives' coping capacities, and decreasing the number of contact hours. If distress is reduced, relatives may use less psychotro pic medication and may visit their general practitioner less often.