Mindfulness and Psychological Flexibility areInversely Associated with Caregiver Burden inParkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder with progressiveimpairments in activities of daily living. With disease progression, people with PD (PwP) needmore help and care from their spouses or professional caregivers. Identifying factors that helpcaregivers to cope with their burden is needed to frame future interventions for PwP caregivers.Mindfulness and psychological flexibility might be factors contributing to resilience against theburden of giving care. In this cross-sectional questionnaire-based study, 118 PwP and theirrespective primary caregivers were included. Caregivers reported moderate burden and only milddepressive symptoms. Mindfulness measured by the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness scale(p 0.003) and psychological flexibility measured by Acceptance and Actions Questionnaire II (p0.001) correlated negatively with caregiver burden. Data from this study indicate mindfulness andpsychological flexibility are factors contributing to resilience against caregiver burden. Futureinterventions to reduce burden in PwP caregivers might be improved by the inclusion ofmindfulness training programs.