Worse QoL Seen for Parkinson Patients With Depressed Caregivers

Friday, August. 11 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For those suffering from Parkinson illness (PD) patients whose caregivers are suffering from depression suffer poorer quality of life (QOL) as well as higher utilization of emergency departments in the study, which was published online on August. 11, in JAMA Network Open.

Rudmila Rashid M.D., from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and colleagues looked into the connection between caregivers reporting depression symptoms, patient QOL as well as emergency department visits and hospitalizations in an observational cohort study carried out in 15 hospitals across the United States. A study of 454 people suffering from PD as well as their family members were taken.

Researchers found a linkage with more depression-related symptoms in caregivers who have lower QOL for patients according to questionnaires like the Parkinson Disease Questionnaire (mean score, 33.78 versus 24.50 on the scale from 100-100, with higher scores suggesting lower QOL for patients with caregivers who had and had no depression symptoms or depression symptoms, respectively).

Additionally, higher depression-related symptoms among caregivers were linked to higher frequency of emergency department visits, however no relationship was observed with higher hospitalizations.

"Additional caregiving resources and interventions to reduce depression symptoms among caregivers could potentially improve patient outcomes," the authors write.

One author has disclosed personal expenses that came from Genentech along with Mediflix.