The Mood Disorder Burden Index: a scale for assessing the burden of caregivers to adults with unipolar or bipolar disorder.
We present a brief measure of caregiver burden, the Mood Disorder Burden Index (MDBI), for use with family members and close friends of adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD). The MDBI assesses burden in three core domains (patients' mood symptoms, caregivers' worry about the future, and caregivers' interpersonal difficulties with the patient) and includes an optional module that assesses caregiver burden associated with patients' pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy. The MDBI was administered to caregivers of older individuals (i.e., 58 years and older) with MDD (n=123) or BD (n=38) who were receiving treatment through a research study. Analyses indicated evidence of convergent and discriminant validity of the new measure well as internal consistency within both caregiver groups. It will be important for future research to administer the MDBI to caregivers of middle-aged and older patients as well as those receiving treatment through inpatient settings or community outpatient clinics.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; University Center for Social and Urban Research, Pittsburgh, PA, United States. Martire@pit.edu
Lynn M
LM
Martire
Gregory A
GA
Hinrichsen
Jennifer Q
JQ
Morse
Charles F
CF
Reynolds
Ariel G
AG
Gildengers
Benoit H
BH
Mulsant
Richard
R
Schulz
Ellen
E
Frank
David J
DJ
Kupfer
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012201:Reward; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires