Carers of men with prostate cancer may be at risk

Some people ask why I pay so much attention to the question of longevity. Am I afraid of it so much that I’m trying hard to avoid it at all? I’ll bet it’s on the contrary. I believe that ages can also give us a lot, for example wisdom and peace of mind. Yet there is another side of the coin – problems with health. And I know too well that it has influence not on the elderly people along but on everybody around them.

The recent study has shown that wives and other carers of men with prostate cancer may be at risk of anxiety, tiredness and other symptoms that influence on the quality of their lives. The results suggest that many family carers want help as well - for the sake of their own health and that of the cancer patient.

40 percent out of the 60 female carers in the study had significant anxiety symptoms, 12 percent were suffering from depression, and about one-third reported fatigue or sleep disturbances. According to the Journal of Clinical Oncology Another 15 percent complained of bodily pain. The women, who were mostly wives, aged 64 years old, on average, rates of each of these conditions surpassed the average for U.S. women of their age.

Scientists are sure that a high percentage of next of family carers experienced clinically meaningful levels of a number of symptoms. And those symptoms often took a strike on the women's daily lives. Those with higher levels of depression, anxiety and fatigue further had the lowest reckoning on a criterion degree of quality of life.

It was said that in estimated 44 million Americans care for an adult family member, and that number is expected to continue growing. Yet little has been known about how many of these carers suffer from their own psychological and physical symptoms. The current findings, though based on a small study, suggest that many family carers of cancer patients have serious health problems that demand attention.

So if you have a person who needs care in your family be very attentive to your own health. It is of much importance both for you and for your patient.