Koushik Nandy’s scientific contributions

Background and Aim : Caring for an individual with cancer can lead to significant stress, anxiety and feelings of sadness among primary caregivers, ultimately impacting their overall psychological and physical well-being. The aim of this research was to assess if cancer primary caregivers who underwent Psychological Interventions (PI) observed enhancements in their Quality of Life by decreasing levels of depression and anxiety. Materials and Methods : A single-centre randomized control trial was conducted among 53 adult primary caregivers aged >18 years of age to <65 years and those involved with their patients’ actual care not less than 12 hours per day, between April, 2023 to August, 2023. All participants went through the assessment of QoL and Depression and Anxiety levels by using validated tools. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups : Group-A (N=31), participants receiving psychological support and Group-B (N=22), who did not receive any psychological support.The intervention comprised five sessions. Following department protocol participants were followed-up based on 21,42, 63, 84 and 105 days. Participants completed primary outcomes (Anxiety, Depression and Quality of Life) before one of each session to see the impact of each session. To identify the impact of PI, descriptive statistics were calculated as the Mean±Standard deviation of the score of validated tools based on primary outcomes. Results : A total of 53, female caregivers (61%) were more than male individuals (39%). About 60.57% of the caregivers reported severe hampering of their QoL. The data showed significant improvements in outcomes measured from pre to post and from post-to-follow-up as compared to Group-B counterparts (p<0.005). Group-A had statistically significant improvements in QoL in 120 days’ follow-uptime, compared with Group-B, p=<0.01. Conclusion : Under challenging circumstances during the period of cancer treatment, PI is a useful intervention for standing continuous psychological support as it is associated with better Quality of Life for primary caregivers. Further research examining factors influencing the outcomes of psychological intervention will be justified.