One Year Trajectory of Caregiver Burden in Parkinson's Disease and Analysis of Gender-Specific Aspects.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder that leads to impairments in activities of daily living. In addition to reducing patients' quality of life, this disease also affects caregivers' well-being. Until recently, caregiver burden was mainly assessed by generic questionnaires, which do not take the characteristics of the chronic disease into consideration. In the case of PD, this issue has been addressed by the introduction of the "Parkinson's disease caregiver burden" questionnaire (PDCB). Data on longitudinal trajectories of caregiver burden are still missing in the literature. In this study, we assessed the one-year trajectory of caregiver burden by the PDCB as a disease-specific questionnaire. Further, gender-specific aspects of caregiver burden were analyzed by applying a caregiver task questionnaire. PDCB total score (n = 84 patients and caregivers) did not significantly change from baseline (30.4) to one year at follow-up (31.5). No significant difference was detected between female and male caregivers in global burden and-specific caregiver tasks. Our data showed only a mild increase of caregiver burden in the timeframe of one year. Gender-specific differences do not seem to impact-specific caregiver tasks in the presented study population.

Alexithymia Is Associated with Reduced Quality of Life and Increased Caregiver Burden in Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease of people who are beyond 50 years of age. People with PD (PwP) suffer from a large variety of motor and non-motor symptoms resulting in reduced health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). In the last two decades, alexithymia was identified as an additional non-motor symptom in PD. Alexithymia is defined as a cognitive affective disturbance resulting in difficulty to identify and distinguish feelings from bodily sensations of emotional arousal. In PD, the frequency of patients suffering of alexithymia is increased compared to healthy controls. The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship of alexithymia to HR-QoL of the PwP and caregiver burden of the corresponding caregiver. This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study used disease specific questionnaires for HR-QoL and caregiver burden. In total 119 PwP and their corresponding caregivers were included in the study. HR-QoL of the PwP correlated significantly with alexithymia (p < 0.001), especially the sub-components "identifying feelings" (p < 0.001) and "difficulties describing feelings" (p = 0.001). Caregiver burden also correlated significantly with PwP alexithymia (p < 0.001). However, caregiver burden was associated with sub-components "identifying feelings" (p < 0.008) and "external oriented thinking" (p < 0.004). These data support the importance of alexithymia as a non-motor symptom in PD.

Mindfulness and Psychological Flexibility are Inversely Associated with Caregiver Burden in Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder with progressive impairments in activities of daily living. With disease progression, people with PD (PwP) need more help and care from their spouses or professional caregivers. Identifying factors that help caregivers to cope with their burden is needed to frame future interventions for PwP caregivers. Mindfulness and psychological flexibility might be factors contributing to resilience against the burden of giving care. In this cross-sectional questionnaire-based study, 118 PwP and their respective primary caregivers were included. Caregivers reported moderate burden and only mild depressive symptoms. Mindfulness measured by the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness scale (p 0.003) and psychological flexibility measured by Acceptance and Actions Questionnaire II (p0.001) correlated negatively with caregiver burden. Data from this study indicate mindfulness and psychological flexibility are factors contributing to resilience against caregiver burden. Future interventions to reduce burden in PwP caregivers might be improved by the inclusion of mindfulness training programs.