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Being a caregiver of chronically ill children is a source of chronic-psychological stress affecting general physical and mental health. However, there is tremendous variance among caregivers: some may develop stress-related depression, whereas others are more “resilient”. The objective of the study was to phenotypically differentiate on psychobiology caregivers who developed depressive symptoms (“vulnerable”) vs. those who did not (“resilient”) from each other and from age-matched controls.

Forty-five mothers of chronically-ill children and 18 controls have been examined. Caregivers were divided via a median split of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale scores in “resilient” (RCs) and “vulnerable” (VCs). We assessed cognitive, affective, metabolic, neuroendocrine and oxidative markers at rest and in response to a laboratory social stressor. ANCOVAs and Bonferroni post …