Caregivers in anorexia nervosa: is grief underlying parental burden?

Autor: Duclos J; Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193-SCALab-Cognitive and Affective Sciences, 59000, Lille, France. jeanne.duclos@univ-lille.fr.; Département de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Saint Vincent de Paul, GHICL, 59000, Lille, France. jeanne.duclos@univ-lille.fr., Piva G; Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, 69678, Bron, France.; University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, 69000, Lyon, France., Riquin É; Service de Psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent, CHU Angers, Angers, France.; Fondation de Santé des Etudiants de France, Paris, France.; Laboratory of Psychology, LPPL EA4638, University of Angers, 49045, Angers, France.; Mitovasc Unit, UMR CNRS 6015-INSERM, 1083, Angers, France., Lalanne C; Université Paris Cité, Paris, France., Meilleur D; Department of Psychology, Adolescence and Eating Disorders Research Laboratory, Montreal University, Montreal, QC, Canada., Blondin S; Department of Psychology, Adolescence and Eating Disorders Research Laboratory, Montreal University, Montreal, QC, Canada., Cook-Darzens S; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hôpital Robert Debré, Paris, France., Godart N; Fondation de Santé des Etudiants de France, Paris, France.; UMR 1018, CESP, INSERM, University Paris-Sud, UVSQ, University Paris-Saclay, Saclay, France.; UFR Des Sciences de la Santé Simone Veil, Versailles, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Eating and weight disorders : EWD [Eat Weight Disord] 2023 Feb 20; Vol. 28 (1), pp. 16. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 20.
DOI: 10.1007/s40519-023-01530-x
Abstrakt: Abstarct: PURPOSE: Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a severe chronic disorder and parents' experience of caregiving is usually marked by emotional distress and burden. Severe chronic psychiatric disorders are known to be linked with the concept of grief. Grief has not been investigated in AN. The aim of this study was to explore parents' and adolescents' characteristics that may be related to parental burden and grief in AN, and the link between these two dimensions.
Methods: Eighty mothers, 55 fathers and their adolescents (N  =  84) hospitalized for AN participated in this study. Evaluations of clinical characteristics of the adolescent's illness were completed, as well as self-evaluations of adolescent and parental emotional distress (anxiety, depression, alexithymia). Levels of parental burden were evaluated with the Experience of Caregiving Inventory and levels of parental grief with the Mental Illness Version of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief.
Results: Main findings indicated that the burden was higher in parents of adolescents with a more severe AN; fathers' burden was also significantly and positively related to their own level of anxiety. Parental grief was higher when adolescents' clinical state was more severe. Paternal grief was related to higher anxiety and depression, while maternal grief was correlated to higher alexithymia and depression. Paternal burden was explained by the father's anxiety and grief, maternal burden by the mother's grief and her child's clinical state.
Conclusion: Parents of adolescents suffering from AN showed high levels of burden, emotional distress and grief. These inter-related experiences should be specific targets for intervention aimed at supporting parents. Our results support the extensive literature on the need to assist fathers and mothers in their caregiving role. This in turn may improve both their mental health and their abilities as caregivers of their suffering child.
Level of Evidence: Level III: Evidence obtained from cohort or case-control analytic studies.
(© 2023. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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