BMC palliative care
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BMC palliative care · Nov 2019
Multicenter StudyPsychological burden in family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer at initiation of specialist inpatient palliative care.
This study prospectively evaluated distress, depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as associated factors in family caregivers (FC) of advanced cancer patients at initiation of specialist inpatient palliative care. ⋯ FCs of patients presenting with indication for specialist palliative care suffer from high distress and relevant depressive and anxiety symptoms, indicating the high need of psychological support not only for patients, but also their FCs. Several socio-demographic and care-related risk-factors influence mental burden of FCs and should be in professional caregivers' focus in daily clinical practice.