title: Caregiver Burden, Quality of Life and Vulnerability Towards Psychopathology in Caregivers of Patients with Dementia/Alzheimer's Disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify caregivers' burden, evaluate quality of life in them; and predict anxiety and depression in caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Neurology and Psychiatry Department of Lahore General Hospital (LGH), from January to December, 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  A purposive sample of 60 caregivers, who had been taking care of patients with AD for more than one year, were recruited from the study centre. The Zarit Burden Interview was used to assess caregiver burden. The brief version of World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale to assess quality of life and anxiety and depression subscales of symptom checklist-revised were administered to assess caregivers' vulnerability towards psychopathology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 6 males and 54 females caregivers with mean age of 37.60 ±14.87 years. The burden of caregiving had negative relationship (-0.57; -0.50; -0.48; and -0.50, respectively) with physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains of quality of life. Neither caregiver burden nor quality of life predicted for anxiety and depression in the caregivers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caregiver burden may impair quality of life of caregivers but results imply the need to identify the interpersonal and intrapersonal characteristics of caregivers that buffered the adverse effects of caregiver burden and impaired the quality of life on psychological wellbeing of the patients with AD.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, New Campus, Lahore.
authors.forename: Saima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dawood
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011599:Psychopathology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult