Caregivers of lung transplant candidates: do they benefit when the patient is receiving psychological services?

BACKGROUND We recently demonstrated that a targeted psychological intervention has quality of life, mood, and social intimacy benefits for patients awaiting lung transplantation. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of the patient's participation in treatment on caregiver functioning. DESIGN AND INTERVENTION Caregivers of patients participating in a randomized clinical trial designed to compare 2 telephone-based psychological interventions completed outcome measures at baseline and at 1 and 3 months after patients completed treatment. Patients were randomized to receive either supportive therapy (emotional and educational support) or quality-of-life therapy (a cognitive-behavioral intervention that provided specific intervention strategies to boost happiness and satisfaction in life domains that compromise overall quality of life). Caregivers did not participate directly in the interventions. Setting and Participants-Participants were 28 caregivers from a large lung transplant center in the southeastern United States. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Quality of life (Quality of Life Inventory), mood disturbance (Profile of Mood States-Short Form), and social intimacy (Miller Social Intimacy Scale). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Caregivers reported higher quality of life and lower mood disturbance scores, and comparable social intimacy scores relative to the patients for whom they were caring. Caregivers whose patients received quality-of-life therapy reported vicarious gains in quality of life, mood disturbance, and social intimacy, relative to those whose patients received support therapy. Finally, the degree of change in patients' quality of life, mood disturbance, and social intimacy contributed significantly to predicting caregivers' functioning at the 3-month follow-up assessment. These findings suggest that telephone-based quality-of-life therapy has beneficial effects that extend beyond patients to their caregivers.