Current Suicide Ideation and Prior Suicide Attempts of Bipolar Patients as Influences on Caregiver Burden

We examined whether caregivers of bipolar patients reporting current suicidal
ideation and/or a history of a suicide attempt reported higher levels of burden
and/or poorer health compared to caregivers of patients without these suicidality
indices. In a cross-sectional design, caregivers (N = 480) associated with (a)
patients with current suicidal ideation or (b) patients with a positive lifetime history
of at least one suicide attempt, reported lower general health scores than
caregivers associated with patients with neither of these indices. Parents of patients
with at least one lifetime attempt reported more burden secondary to role
dysfunction than spouses. Levels of depression in caregivers varied with whether
the caregiver was a spouse or a parent, and whether patients had a history of
suicide attempts, current suicidal ideation, or both.