ArticleBMC health services research2021
Empathy and perceived burden in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
Article in BMC health services research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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7 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of synbiotics in the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy and the parental burden of caregivers: a single-arm pretest-posttest trial.BMC pediatrics · 2024Trial
- Emotional burden and family functioning among caregivers of individuals with eating disorders.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Empathy and mental health distress in informal caregivers of dementia and stroke patients: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Factors affecting negative and positive emotions among spouses caring for patients with psychotic or bipolar disorder.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2024Article
- Caregiver Burden among Caregivers of Patients with Mental Illness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
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8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundCaregivers of patients load different kinds of burdens, including emotional distress. Aims of this study were to evaluate both burden and empathy of caregivers who assist patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
methodsWe selected a sample of 60 caregivers (34 women and 26 men), who assisted patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders treated in our local Community Mental Health Center for a 1-year minimum period. We administered two scales to our sample, Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES), and collected data of caregivers and their assisted patients in a 3-month period. Data were statistically analyzed.
resultsWe reported a mean ZBI score of 49.68 (±15.03 SD) and a mean BEES score of 14.35 (±9.05 SD), indicating the perception of moderate-severe burden and low level of empathy, respectively. The analysis of internal consistency confirmed the good reliability of both ZBI (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90) and BEES (Cronbach's alpha = 0.77). The correlation between the two scales was not statistically significant at Spearman test. At our multiple linear regression, many variables of both caregiver and patient showed a significant correlation with the ZBI score. In particular, not living with the assisted patient and female gender of caregiver potentially decreased the burden, whereas clinical severity of assisted patient and two caregiver conditions, middle school education and spouse relationship with patient, could worsen the burden. We highlighted two positive statistically significant correlations between the total score of BEES and caregiver characteristics: being spouse and not living with assisted patient.
conclusionsOur study highlights that the caregiver burden of patients with severe psychiatric disorders is high and is associated with low emotional empathy experienced by caregivers, probably due to a defensive psychological mechanism. The conditions of spouse and cohabitation can concomitantly increase both empathy and burden in caregivers.
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