Quality of Life, Depression, and Anxiety in Ventricular Assist Device Therapy: Longitudinal Outcomes for Patients and Family Caregivers.

The sample was small and came from one academic medical center. It was a formal interim analysis, not a completed study. The analysis was unadjusted and did not include covariates. Patients and caregivers were followed only through 3 months after implantation. The sample was mostly middle-aged, white, male patients and female caregivers, and almost all dyads were couples. Patients without a primary caregiver were excluded, so findings may not apply to those rare situations. There was attrition due to patient death and dissolution of the caregiving relationship. There was substantial variability in caregiver depression, anxiety, and quality of life, so the average changes may not describe every caregiver. The authors did not statistically compare their caregiver scores with published samples.

The paper reports no conflicts of interest. Patients were part of a federally sponsored study.

Do not conclude that ventricular assist device therapy improved caregiver depression or anxiety. Caregiver depression and anxiety did not change significantly, and caregiver quality of life worsened. The study also did not test a support intervention, so it cannot show that counseling or joint patient-caregiver services work.