Jens Einar Jansen1, John Gleeson2, Sue Cotton3. 1. Early Psychosis Intervention Center/Psychiatric Research Unit, Region Zealand, Smedegade 10, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark; Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: jenj@regionsjaelland.dk. 2. School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Locked Bag 4115, Fitzroy MDC, Victoria 3065, Australia. 3. Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Locked Bag 10, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia; Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: We sought to review empirical studies of psychological factors accounting for distress in caregivers of young people with early psychosis. METHOD: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we included studies that empirically tested psychological models of caregiver distress in early psychosis by searching the following databases up until March 2014: PsycINFO, EMBASE and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). This was followed by additional manual searches of reference lists and relevant journals. RESULTS: The search identified 15 papers describing 13 studies together comprising 1056 caregivers of persons with early psychosis. The mean age of caregivers was 47.2years (SD=9.8), of whom 71.5% were female and 74.4% were parents. Nine different psychological variables were examined in the included studies, which were categorised in the following non-mutually exclusive groups: coping, appraisal/attribution and interpersonal response. There was considerable data to support the link between distress and psychological factors such as avoidant coping, appraisal and emotional over-involvement. However, the possibilities of drawing conclusions were limited by a number of methodological issues, including cross-sectional data, small sample sizes, confounding variables not being accounted for, and a wide variation in outcome measures. DISCUSSION: The strengths of the review were the systematic approach, the exclusion of non-empirical papers and the rating of methodological quality by two independent raters. Limitations were that we excluded studies published in languages other than English, that data extraction forms were developed for this study and hence not tested for validity, and that there was a potential publication bias in favour of significant findings. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: A better grasp of the psychological factors accounting for caregiver distress early in the course of illness may help us understand the trajectory of distress. This is an important step in preventing long-term distress in caregivers and supporting recovery in the whole family.
OBJECTIVES: We sought to review empirical studies of psychological factors accounting for distress in caregivers of young people with early psychosis. METHOD: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we included studies that empirically tested psychological models of caregiver distress in early psychosis by searching the following databases up until March 2014: PsycINFO, EMBASE and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). This was followed by additional manual searches of reference lists and relevant journals. RESULTS: The search identified 15 papers describing 13 studies together comprising 1056 caregivers of persons with early psychosis. The mean age of caregivers was 47.2years (SD=9.8), of whom 71.5% were female and 74.4% were parents. Nine different psychological variables were examined in the included studies, which were categorised in the following non-mutually exclusive groups: coping, appraisal/attribution and interpersonal response. There was considerable data to support the link between distress and psychological factors such as avoidant coping, appraisal and emotional over-involvement. However, the possibilities of drawing conclusions were limited by a number of methodological issues, including cross-sectional data, small sample sizes, confounding variables not being accounted for, and a wide variation in outcome measures. DISCUSSION: The strengths of the review were the systematic approach, the exclusion of non-empirical papers and the rating of methodological quality by two independent raters. Limitations were that we excluded studies published in languages other than English, that data extraction forms were developed for this study and hence not tested for validity, and that there was a potential publication bias in favour of significant findings. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: A better grasp of the psychological factors accounting for caregiver distress early in the course of illness may help us understand the trajectory of distress. This is an important step in preventing long-term distress in caregivers and supporting recovery in the whole family.
Authors: John Gleeson; Reeva Lederman; Helen Herrman; Peter Koval; Dina Eleftheriadis; Sarah Bendall; Sue M Cotton; Mario Alvarez-Jimenez Journal: Trials Date: 2017-01-17 Impact factor: 2.279
Authors: John Gleeson; Reeva Lederman; Peter Koval; Greg Wadley; Sarah Bendall; Sue Cotton; Helen Herrman; Kingsley Crisp; Mario Alvarez-Jimenez Journal: Front Psychol Date: 2017-04-03