Prolonged Grief Disorder and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression among Bereaved Family Caregivers in the Context of Palliative Home Care

European journal of investigation in health psychology and education

article

Alberto Sardella¹  Alessandro Musetti²  Pasquale Caponnetto³  Maria C. Quattropani³  Vittorio Lenzo³ 

[1] Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina;Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma;Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania;Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction ,(CoEHAR), University of Catania

关键词: clinical psychology;    palliative care;    caregiver;    prolonged grief;    loss;    cancer;    anxiety;    depression;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ejihpe13020037

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Background: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and the psychological comorbidity of PGD among bereaved family caregivers of palliative care cancer patients. We also examined the discriminant validity of two simple and reliable tools in correctly categorized individuals with PGD. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 157 bereaved participants (77.1% females, mean age = 43.50 ± 14.04 years, mean time since the loss = 3.59 years) recruited from three palliative home care services. These participants completed the Prolonged Grief Scale (PG-13) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: The prevalence of PGD within the sample was 4.46% (i.e., = 7/157). Participants scored higher than the cut-off on the PG-13 and the HADS-D. Symptoms of PGD were positively correlated with depression levels. The ROC curve analysis showed that the HADS-D was outstanding in categorizing individuals with prolonged grief disorder from those without PGD. A HADS-D score of ≥7.5 was able to categorize participants with a sensitivity of 0.90 and a specificity of 0.73. Conclusions: Overall, these results highlight the relationship between grief and depression symptoms and their exceptional discriminant validity among correctly identified individuals with PGD.

【 授权许可】

Unknown