Síntomas depresivos en cuidadores primarios de pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia paranoide que acuden al consultorio de Psiquiatría de un hospital general de Lima, Perú

To determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms in caregivers of patients attending at a psychiatric office of a general hospital with diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and to estimate the correlation between the severity of schizophrenia and depressive symptoms in the primary caregiver. The Zung Depression Scale (ZDS) and the Depressive Psychopathology Scale (DPS) were administered to caregivers and the severity of schizophrenia was assessed using the scale of Clinical Global Impression (CGI). We evaluated 61 patient-caregiver pairs. Between the patients; 63.9% were male and 88.5% were single. Of the caregivers; 77.05% were women, 47.5% married, and 42.6% were the mothers of the patients. The prevalence of probable clinic depression was 3.3% and 14.8% according to the DPS (= 25.5) and the ZDS (= 56.25). It was find correlation between the caregiver score in the ZDS and the CGI of the patient (rho = 0.317, p = 0.0013). The female caregivers had higher scores in ZDS than male caregivers (49.65 ± 8.9 vs. 42.59 ± 7.15, p = 0.009). Patients were mostly male and single; most caregivers were married, women and mothers of patients. Depressive symptoms (according ZDS) in caregivers were higher in female and were correlated with the severity of the patient's illness.