Living with a depressed person.

This study explored the burdens experienced by 42 adults who lived with a depressed patient and related these burdens to their degree of psychological distress. The comparison group consisted of 23 adults who were living with someone who had been an in- or outpatient but who was not currently in a depressive episode. Respondents who were living with a patient in a depressive episode were quite distressed themselves, and over 40% met a standardized criterion for referral for therapeutic intervention. For these respondents, living with a patient currently in a depressive episode produced numerous burdens in response to the patients' symptoms, particularly patients' lack of interest in social life, fatigue, feelings of hopelessness, and worrying. Multiple regression analyses showed that these burdens accounted almost entirely for respondents' greater psychological distress. It is suggested that clinical depression is often indicative of a more generally distressed interpersonal context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)