Wen, Fur‐Hsing

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.

This prospective, longitudinal study explored changes in and modifiable factors associated with high self‐perceived burden to others (SPB) among a convenience sample of 276 dyads of terminally ill Taiwanese cancer patients and their family caregivers over patients’ last year of life. High SPB was evaluated by scores ≥20 on the Self‐Perceived Burden Scale. Modifiable factors of high SPB included factors related to both patients (i.e., symptom distress, functional dependence and coping capacity) and caregivers (i.e., caregiving burden, depressive symptoms and quality of life [QOL]).

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.