Most noteworthy, ADSI emerged as the only dimension of social support that partially explained the levels of anxiety and depression at the end of the study beyond the initial level at baseline. Specifically, family members with lower degrees of ADSI tended to display worsened levels of emotional distress over time. It has been suggested that emotional support and motivational support predict lower degrees of caregiver burden for partners of patients with heart failure (Luttik et al. 2007b). These results add to the findings regarding the importance of social support, and in particular the subjective experience of adequacy of the support received by others, for family members of the CHF patients