Caregivers Risk of Illness
A story about the Coskie family, and the effects on Dixie Coskie, while taking care of her son, Paul Coskie. Their story illustrates the common effects of caregiving on the caregiver. Emotional, mental, and physical. The second half of the article goes into coping with the emotions, stress, and guilt that go along with caregiving.
More than 65 million people -- nearly a third of the U.S. population, provide care for a friend or family member during any given year, according to the National Family Caregivers Association.
In an editorial in the May issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, psychologist Peter Vitaliano explains that many of these people suffer just as Coskie did.
"Thousands of articles have reported greater psychological and physical health problems in caregivers than in non caregivers," writes Vitaliano, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
In the same issue, a team led by researchers at the University of Utah studied 1,221 elderly married couples and found someone was six times more likely to develop dementia if his or her spouse had dementia.
It's not entirely clear why caregiving can make you sick, but researchers believe depression and chronically high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, both of which often accompany caregiving, take a toll on the body's immune and cardiovascular systems.
Coskie says she never dreamed stress could wreak such havoc on her body, but in retrospect it makes sense.
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