Mood disorders

Anxiety and mood disorders represent two of the most common disorders experienced by children/adolescents. Untreated anxiety or mood disorders can put children and adolescents at risk for other conditions, like disruptive behavior and substance use disorders, that can have far-reaching consequences even after the mood or anxiety disorder is treated. For caregivers, providing care or raising a child or adolescent with a diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder can impact caregivers in various ways.

Background: Severe mental illnesses (SMIs) have been found to be associated with both increases in morbidity-mortality, need for treatment care in patients themselves, and burden for relatives as caregivers. A growing number of web-based and mobile software applications have appeared that aim to address various barriers with respect to access to care.

Background: Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) is a well-established group psychosocial intervention for people with dementia. There is evidence that home-based programmes of cognitive stimulation delivered by family caregivers may benefit both the person and the caregiver. However, no previous studies have evaluated caregiver-delivered CST.

The life of close relatives of persons with bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with emotional distress, depression, and a high level of use of mental health care. Illness-related changes of their life situation endanger relationships, social life, finances, and occupational functioning. Understanding of facilitating conditions for close relatives is still a neglected research area. The aim of the present study thus was to explore what makes the life of close relatives of persons with BD more liveable. A lifeworld phenomenological approach was used.