Psychological Distress Among Caregivers of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Assessed with SCL-90-R Self-reported Questionnaire

Objective: Caregivers of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience increased levels of psychological distress. This study investigated the impact of caring for patients with PD on the psychiatric health status of the caregivers by using Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) and described the relationship between various socio-demographic and clinical characteristics and psychological distress of caregivers.
Materials and Methods: The SCL-90-R self-reported questionnaire was administered to 60 caregivers of PD patients and 50 healthy controls. Sixty patients underwent different scales including unified PD rating scale, Hoehn & Yahr scale, the Schwab-England activities of daily living scale and mini-mental state examination for the assessment of their motor and non-motor symptoms. Sleep disturbances in patients were assessed using the PD sleep scale and Epworth sleepiness scale.
Results: All caregivers were family members. They got higher scores from the anxiety (ANX) of the SCL-90-R than the control group. Of the caregivers, 13 (22%) had a pathological score in the global severity index. Age and sleep scales scores significantly predicted psychological distress in interpersonal sensitivity, phobic ANX, psychoticism and obsessive - compulsive symptoms, ANX, depression and additional items dimensions in caregivers. Disease severity and other clinical findings did not affect psychological distress in caregivers.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that caregivers of patients with PD who are family members have higher ANX level as psychological distress. Sleep symptoms of patients with PD affect distress level of caregivers of patients with PD.