Psychosocial interventions for carers of people with severe mental and substance use disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundSevere mental disorders - such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders - exert a negative impact not only on affected people but also on their carers. To support carers of people with severe mental disorders, several psychosocial interventions have been developed.MethodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess whether psychosocial interventions for carers of persons with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or substance use disorders produce benefit/harm with respect to a series of outcomes - including subjective and objective burden, depressive symptoms, well-being/quality of life, sleep, skills/knowledge, self-efficacy, physical health - as compared to standard support/support as usual or other control conditions.ResultsIn carers of persons with schizophrenia, psychoeducational interventions were associated with significant improvement in personal burden, well-being, and knowledge about the illness; and a supportive-educational intervention with an improvement in personal burden. In carers of persons with bipolar disorder, psychoeducational interventions were associated with significant improvement in personal burden and depressive symptoms; family-led supportive interventions with an improvement in family burden; family-focused intervention and online "mi.spot" intervention with a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. Psychosocial interventions used for carers of persons with substance use disorders were found to be overall effective on the level of well-being, but the low number of trials did not allow detection of differences between the various psychosocial interventions.ConclusionsThe quality of the evidence ranged from very low to moderate, suggesting the need for further better-quality research.