title: [Depressive symptoms in primary caregivers of patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia attending at a psychiatric office of a general hospital in Lima, Peru].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms in caregivers of patients attending at a psychiatric office of a general hospital with diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and to estimate the correlation between the severity of schizophrenia and depressive symptoms in the primary caregiver.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Zung Depression Scale (ZDS) and the Depressive Psychopathology Scale (DPS) were administered to caregivers and the severity of schizophrenia was assessed using the scale of Clinical Global Impression (CGI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We evaluated 61 patient-caregiver pairs. Between the patients; 63.9% were male and 88.5% were single. Of the caregivers; 77.05% were women, 47.5% married, and 42.6% were the mothers of the patients. The prevalence of probable clinic depression was 3.3% and 14.8% according to the DPS (= 25.5) and the ZDS (= 56.25). It was find correlation between the caregiver score in the ZDS and the CGI of the patient (rho = 0.317, p = 0.0013). The female caregivers had higher scores in ZDS than male caregivers (49.65 ± 8.9 vs. 42.59 ± 7.15, p = 0.009).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients were mostly male and single; most caregivers were married, women and mothers of patients. Depressive symptoms (according ZDS) in caregivers were higher in female and were correlated with the severity of the patient's illness.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neuro-Psiquiatría del Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Perú. martin.arevalo@upch.pe
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arévalo-Flores
authors.forename: Hever
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Krüger-Malpartida
authors.forename: Johann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vega-Dienstmaier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010568:Peru; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid; D014504:Urban Health