Self-Reported Burden Among Informal Caregivers of Patients Receiving Psychiatric Hospital Treatment: A National Cross-Sectional Study

Involving informal caregivers in the support of patients receiving psychiatric treatment has a positive effect on the patient's treatment outcome. At the same time, providing care for these patients may pose a serious burden on the caregivers themselves. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with a high caregiver burden using a cross-sectional study design and to determine areas of perceived burden in a thematic analysis based on information from the Danish National Survey of Psychiatric Patient Experiences. Results showed that 54.3% of caregivers reported a high caregiver burden, and the associated factors were: being a parental caregiver for outpatients (adjusted OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 1.17–2.76) as well as inpatients (adjusted OR: 3.81, 95% CI: 1.97–10.51) and diagnosis among outpatients, including affective disorder (adjusted OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 1.34–2.43), anxiety/OCD (adjusted OR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.14–2.41) and eating disorder (adjusted OR: 3.91, 95% CI: 1.87–8.15). The thematic analysis revealed four areas related to caregiver burden: ‘Emotional burden’, ‘Relational burden’, ‘Implications for everyday life’ and ‘Encountering the health care system’. This study stresses that a large group of informal caregivers feel highly burdened and notify the specific areas of caregiver burden. Targeted interventions are needed to alleviate the burden of informal caregivers and reduce their risk of negative health outcomes.