In this study, we evaluated the level of anxiety and
depression and their effect on the quality of life of the
caregiver spouses of veterans with spinal cord injury .
In spite of comparing the caregivers’ physical and
mental health to the control group, there might be a
probability of selection bias among the control group.
On the other hand, only 60% of the caregivers accepted
to participate which does not completely represent our
population .
We found that quality of life in caregiver spouses was
worse than the matched control group, and the
probability of depression was higher as well. Lower
education, younger age and lower quality of life
increased the likelihood of depression among
caregivers. Socioeconomic status could also influence
people in a wide range which is difficult to be fully
investigated and matched between groups. Spinal cord
injury causes functional limitations and thus, reduction
of function departs the patient from the social life
which leads to mental and psychological problems. The
study of Dravidian et al. showed that there is a high
prevalence of psychological problems among veterans
(13). On the other hand, many studies showed that the
psychological problems of the patients can affect their
family, particularly the caregivers (14, 15).
In contrast to the other studies (16, 17), we did not find
a correlation between time elapsed since injury and the
level of depression and anxiety. We can assume that
coping strategies such as religious beliefs and having
faith in destiny would have helped these people over
the time to deal with disabilities. The major proportion
of caregivers married after the caregiven person had
been injured in a situation that they prospected the
lifetime burden.