Dyspnea/psychology

Introduction: Breathlessness is a common symptom of advanced disease placing a huge burden on patients, health systems and informal carers (families and friends providing daily help and support). It causes distress and isolation. Carers provide complex personal, practical and emotional support yet often feel ill-prepared to care. They lack knowledge and confidence in their caring role.

Little is known about the factors that mediate the caregiving experience of informal carers at home, which could inform about ways of supporting them in their caregiving role. Our objective was to investigate the caring experience of carers for patients with an advanced progressive illness (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], heart failure, cancer, or motor neuron diseases [MND]), who suffer from breathlessness.