Tug McGraw Research Center Study Reveals Caregivers Experiencing Elevated Stress Levels

November 15, 2006

Providing care for a family member with cancer places the caregiver at risk for increased burden. In addition, meeting the multi-faceted needs of brain tumor patients, a particularly vulnerable cancer population, places caregivers at increased risk for experiencing elevated levels of psychological stress.

The stress associated with caregiving has been linked to negative effects on caregiver health. Previous studies have indicated that acting as a caregiver is connected to negative psychological and physiological health consequences. Psychological disorders reported include panic disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Physiologically, caregivers have been reported to experience high incidences of respiratory infections, hypertension, eating disorders, and poor health habits, as well as a reduction in immune function.

Research studies undertaken at the Tug McGraw Center for Quality of Life/Supportive Care Research in The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke have documented that a high percentage (72%) of the caregiver population report experiencing elevated levels of stress. Though all caregivers are at risk for experiencing stress, several characteristics have correlated with higher levels of perceived stress in this sample population. Males reported almost twice as much stress as females. Caregivers of patients with low grade tumors were more stressed than caregivers of patients with high grade tumors. Caregivers who had attained higher levels of education (college graduates & advanced degrees) reported experiencing more stress. Younger caregivers of patients with low grade tumors also reported experiencing more stress.

While providing informal care to terminally ill cancer patients is associated with distress, depression, and fatigue, only limited data exists on caregivers in other cancer types with similar prognostic outcomes. Unlike other caregiver populations, caregivers of brain tumor patients must address the cognitive decline associated with brain tumors in addition to functional and physical decline. Addressing the cognitive and neuropsychiatric aspects of this disease may place caregivers of patients with brain tumors at increased risk for experiencing negative outcomes such as distress.

This information is important to the medical community because patients with brain tumors often experience functional, psychological, and cognitive deficits, and their "stressed" caregivers are oftentimes called upon to make important decisions regarding the care of patients. Furthermore, an understanding of which caregivers are at risk for experiencing elevated levels of stress allows researchers to better address the needs of this vulnerable population and to reduce the long-term health risks for caregivers through targeted interventions.

Steve Keir, DrPH, MPH

Co-Director of the Tug McGraw Center for QOL/Supportive Care Research in the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center , Assistant Clinical Research Professor in the Department of Surgery