Psychological Distress Is Prevalent and Interdependent Among Patients With Decompensated Cirrhosis and Their Caregivers.

Ufere, Nneka N; Zeng, Chengbo; Donlan, John; Shalev, Daniel; Kaplan, Alyson; Noll, Alan; Liu, Annie; Pintro, Kedie et al. · Am J Gastroenterol · 2025

cross_sectional · Level IV

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Abstract

Little is known about the interdependence of psychological distress among patients with decompensated cirrhosis and their caregivers. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the interdependence of psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) among 127 patient-caregiver dyads using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling. Among dyads, 26% had both partners reporting clinically significant anxiety and 18% reporting clinically significant depression. Caregiver anxiety significantly predicted patient depression (standardized β = 0.18, P = 0.03). Psychological distress was prevalent and interdependent among dyads. These results underscore the need to develop interventions to reduce psychological distress in both patients with decompensated cirrhosis and their caregivers.

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