Caregivers and patients of a movement disorder: an opportunity for harmony.

Hi Fernando.

While individual preferences are important this is where understanding groups of people living with a disease and their caregivers can add to our knowledge.

the role of qualitative research where both patient and their caregivers are interviewed can help. It is interesting when patient/caregiver couples are interviewed together and when they are interviewed separately as one may find different information comes to light.

Sometimes you get surprises through this research - things that matter to the two groups vary. For example one might expect that the more pessimistic people are about the disorder the worse maybe the outcomes. However if one person in the dyad is optimistic about the condition while the other member pessimistic this creates more difficulties in not only in terms of conflict but also in terms of outcome; that is even if both people are pessimistic the outcomes are often perceived better.