Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Clinical Education Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
2 Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Taking care of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) makes critical challenges for
their informal caregivers (ICGs) and forces them to tolerate considerable burden. This qualitative
study explored the dimensions of ICGs’ care burden (CB) based on their own experiences and the
patients’ therapists.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a qualitative study which was conducted based on conventional
content analysis through semistructured and in‑depth interviews. Purposive sampling was used to
select the participants including 13 ICGs and 14 therapists (2 psychiatrists, 10 psychiatric nurses,
and 2 clinical psychologists). Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using
Graneheim’s 2004 principles.
RESULTS: Qualitative analyses yielded three major themes: “challenges associated with the nature
of BD,” “challenges related to the ICGs,” and “challenges related to interventions.” The categories of
the first theme entailed “individual‑oriented characteristics of BD” and “social‑oriented characteristics
of BD.” The categories of the second theme consisted of “social stigma,” “psychiatric problems and
helplessness of ICGs,” “financial costs related to providing cares,” and “insufficient self‑efficacy of
ICGs in cares provision.” The categories of the last theme included “educational interventions” and
“organizational interventions.”
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the burden of ICGs have individual, social, and
organizational aspects. Every one of them impacts the severity of their burden remarkably. The
depth of the therapists’ experiences has a significant role in designing the interventions to reduce
this burden. The present investigation emphasized the constitution of a comprehensive framework
related to all factors affecting burden in a developing country.
Keywords
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