Predicting caregiver burden over the first 4 months after acute traumatic brain injury in Latin America: a multi-country study.

The data are correlational, so patient symptoms did not necessarily cause caregiver burden; burdened caregivers might have rated patient symptoms higher. Patient symptoms were caregiver-rated, not objective neuropsychological or clinician-rated. The sample was mostly male patients and female caregivers, so results may not apply well to female patients or male caregivers. Only three sites were studied, and site differences could not be examined because each site sample was small. Follow-up was only 4 months, so longer-term burden trajectories are unknown. The study did not test any intervention, so it cannot show that social functioning or gender-sensitive programmes reduce burden.

The authors declared no additional conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research funding.

Do not conclude that treating patient social and emotional self-regulation will lower caregiver burden. The study is correlational and tested no intervention, so it only reports an association.