The Need of Primary Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients and Its The Effect on Care Giving Burden: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Patients' relatives usually care for patients of with schizophrenia. Caregivers can experience some difficulties during the caregiving process. This can increase the burden of caregivers. This study aimed to determine the requirements of primary caregivers of schizophrenia patients and its effect on caregiver burden. Methods: The sample of the cross-sectional study consisted of 94 caregivers of patients with schizophrenia who were treated at the university hospital in western Turkey and agreed to participate in this study. A questionnaire form and Caregiving Burden Scale were used to collect data. The data were collected from individual interviews between March-December 2015. Results: The average score of Caregiving Burden Scale of the primary caregivers is was determined as 38.47 +/- 15.05. Based on this the primary caregivers had difficulty in giving medication to their patients, the requirement of knowledge about drug treatment and side effects, coping with symptoms of schizophrenia, early warning signs, communication skills, coping with stress, psychosocial treatment methods, planning of the patients' leisure activities, and contribution of the patient to home life affected the caregiving burden having a p value of (p<0.05). Conclusions: The overall Caregiving Burden Scale mean score of caregivers was considered moderate. It can be conclude that caregivers' requirements affect the burden of care during the caregiving process. It was considered that the feeling of burden care for caregivers will be able to reduce by giving consultancy services related to what they need and with the creation of comprehensive, systematic, continuous education programs including the difficulties faced by caregivers and the requirements being able to cope easily with the difficulties during caregiving.