Perceived care burden and related factors in primary caregivers of patients with bipolar disorder

Objectives: This study was carried out using a descriptive design to determine the perceived care burden of primary caregivers of bipolar patients and the related factors. Methods: The sample of the study included caregivers of patients with bipolar disorder in the outpatient clinics and inpatient clinics of a university hospital in Istanbul. Data were collected between March and September 2018 using a personal information form and the Caregiver Burden Inventory. Mann Whitney U test, independent sample t test, Kruskal Wallis H test, one-way ANOVA, LSD, and Dunn's tests, and Spearman and Pearson correlation analyses were used to analyze the data. Results: Analysis of the data indicated that 60.4% of the caregivers were women and that the mean age of the caregivers was 38.36 +/- 11.69 years. The caregivers' mean score on the Caregivers' Burden Inventory was 41.99 +/- 19.9, with the highest mean score on the subscales being 12.35 +/- 5.25 on the Developmental Burden subscale. Caregivers who resided in the same home as the patient, were children of the patient, voluntarily provided care, experienced frequent difficulties in performing their role, evaluated their spiritual life as weak, had a patient often needed help from someone else in self-care and treatment, were subjected to violence by their patients, and had a patient with a high frequency of symptoms associated with bipolar disorder or comorbidities had statistically significantly higher total scores on the Caregivers' Burden Inventory and on the Inventory's sub-scales than those of others (p<0.05). A statistically significant correlation was found between the number of days per week the caregivers provided care and the Time Dependence Burden subscale (p<0.001). Conclusion: Caregivers of the patients with bipolar disorder had a nearly moderate level of burden. It is recommended that additional comparative studies involving larger samples of caregivers from different socioeconomic backgrounds be conducted on the subject of care burden.