Grief and Risk of Depression in Context: The Emotional Outcomes of Bereaved Cancer Caregivers

We investigated the relationships of grief and depression to cancer caregiving in early bereavement. We began with three expectations: (a) each outcome would reflect different situational predictors, (b) grief would be more directly related to such predictors, and (c) components of grief would relate differently to the caregiving context and depressed mood. We conducted telephone interviews with family caregivers of incurable cancer patients from two hospitals. A total of 199 family caregivers were interviewed at the time of the patient's diagnosis and reinterviewed 3 months after the patient's death. Results showed grief severity was predicted by caregiving circumstances, but bereavement depressed mood was largely unrelated to caregiving. Grief was the main predictor of depressed mood and mediated almost all other effects. We conclude that while grief may trigger depression, the dissimilar connection to context means that the two emotional states should not be equated based purely on similarity of expression.