Assessment of general health and psychopathology among family members in eating disorder: Differences between primary and secondary caregivers

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to assess differences in general health and psychopathology between primary and secondary caregivers of patients with a diagnosis of eating disorder. A battery of questionnaires was administered to a sample of 186 family members (93 primary and 93 secondary caregivers). The results indicate that primary caregivers presented worse scores in general health, anxiety, depression and psychopathological symptoms, compared with the group of secondary caregivers. The frequency of subjects (primary versus secondary caregivers) who reached the cut-off point in the SCL-90-R Global Severity Index (GSI) of psychopathology was similar for both groups. Even though the two caregiver groups presented a similar prevalence of psychopathology, the results suggest that mainly primary caregivers fi nd themselves in a situation with risk for their general mental health, anxiety and depression.