Current suicide ideation and prior suicide attempts of bipolar patients as influences on caregiver burden

Cheryl A. Chessick, Deborah A. Perlick, David J. Miklowitz, Richard Kaczynski, Michael H. Allen, Chad D. Morris, Lauren B. Marangell, Charles Bowden, Jodi Gonzalez, Joseph Calabrese, Jenifer Culver, Terence Ketter, Mark D. Fosse, Andrew Nierenberg, Michael Ostacher, Jayendra Patel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examined whether caregivers of bipolar patients reporting current suicidal ideation and/or a history of a suicide attempt reported higher levels of burden and/or poorer health compared to caregivers of patients without these suicidality indices. In a cross-sectional design, caregivers (N = 480) associated with (a) patients with current suicidal ideation or (b) patients with a positive lifetime history of at least one suicide attempt, reported lower general health scores than caregivers associated with patients with neither of these indices. Parents of patients with at least one lifetime attempt reported more burden secondary to role dysfunction than spouses. Levels of depression in caregivers varied with whether the caregiver was a spouse or a parent, and whether patients had a history of suicide attempts, current suicidal ideation, or both.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)482-491
Number of pages10
JournalSuicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
Volume37
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2007
Externally publishedYes

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