Tang, Siew Tzuh

Background: Family caregivers' distinct depressive-symptom trajectories are understudied and have been examined independently during end-of-life (EOL) caregiving or bereavement, making it difficult to validate two competing hypotheses (wear-and-tear vs. relief) of caregiving effects on bereavement. Existing studies may also miss short-term heterogeneity in depressive symptoms during the immediate postloss period due to lengthy delays in the first postloss assessment.

Objective: Grief reactions in bereaved caregivers of cancer patients have been identified individually as distinct prolonged grief disorder (PGD)—and major depressive disorder (MDD)—symptom trajectories, but no research has examined whether the patterns of change (trajectories) for PGD and MDD symptoms synchronize during bereavement.

Background: Family caregivers carry heavy end-of-life (EOL) caregiving burdens, with their physical and psychological well-being threatened from caregiving to bereavement. However, caregiving burden has rarely been examined as a risk factor for bereavement adjustment to disentangle the wear-and-tear vs relief models of bereavement.

Context: Family caregivers constitute a critical component of the end-of-life care system with considerable cost to themselves. However, the joint association of terminally ill cancer patients' symptom distress and functional impairment with caregivers' subjective caregiving burden, quality of life (QOL), and depressive symptoms remains unknown.

Background: Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and depression are recognized as distinct emotional-distress disorders for bereaved family caregivers. However, this distinction has been mostly validated in cross-sectional studies, neglecting the dynamic characteristics of bereaved caregivers' emotional distress. Objective: To validate the distinction between symptoms of PGD and depression across the first bereavement year for family caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients.

Background: Bereaved families endure tremendous grief. However, few studies have longitudinally investigated caregivers' bereavement grief for more than one year postloss and none is from family-oriented Asian countries. Objectives: We explored longitudinal changes in and modifiable predictors of severe depressive symptoms for Taiwanese family caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients over the first two years postloss.