Long-Term Follow-Up of Caregivers for HCT recipients

This article provides an overview of the long-term physical and psychosocial issues affecting caregivers: the spouses, partners, and/or children of hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. The authors note that caregivers of transplant recipients can frequently experience physical stress such as fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain, loss of physical strength, loss of appetite, and weight loss. Psychological symptoms include anxiety, depression, and emotional distress. The authors recommend that in order to optimize outcomes for transplant recipients, transplant teams should also provide a degree of care to the caregivers of transplant recipients through periodic assessments by psychiatric providers or other mental health professionals.

Wulff-Burchfield EM, et al. Bone Marrow Transplant