A Study of Burden in Primary Caregiver of Alcohol Use Disorder Patients

Background: Alcohol Use Disorder is well recognized as a complex bio-psycho-social phenomenon; it is a major social and personal threat and is considered as “family disease”. The aim is to assess the level of Burden in Primary Caregiver of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) patient. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional observational study done among 100 patients with AUD and their primary caregivers were taken according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients were screened for AUD by AUDIT and Severity by SADQ. Caregiver burden and distress were assessed by Family Burden Interview Schedule (FBIS) and Psychiatric morbidity in caregiver was assessed by M. I. N. I. Statistical analysis. Results: The result demonstrates that primary caregivers of AUD experienced severe burden in all the domains of FBIS. 50% of the caregivers were having psychiatric illness of which major depressive episode, dysthymia & anxiety disorders were most common. Severity of caregiver burden in domains of routine family activities disruption, financial burden & disruption of family leisure had strong positive correlation with alcohol dependence severity. Significant correlation between Objective & Subjective burden and psychiatric morbidity in caregivers was also found. Conclusion: The study has illustrated that significant amount of burden has been experienced by all the primary caregivers of alcohol use disorder patients. It also found that the burden of care was positively correlated with severity of alcohol dependence in the patients and psychiatric morbidity in primary caregivers.

Keywords: Alcohol Use Disorder, Primary Caregiver, Burden, Psychiatric Comorbidity.