Although several studies have quantified costs of cancer care; none to date have 
examined how cancer costs impact family caregivers' emotional health. This study 
was designed to evaluate how perceptions of economic hardship influence burden, 
depressive symptoms, and anxiety in family caregivers of persons with a primary 
malignant brain tumor. Caregiver (CG)/patient dyads (n = 33) were recruited at 
the time of diagnosis; data were collected at diagnosis and 4 months, and linear 
regression determined the impact of economic hardship on caregivers' emotional 
health. Economic hardship did not predict CG burden-schedule at diagnosis or 4 
months. Economic hardship predicted burden-abandonment at diagnosis (P < 0.01), 
but not 4 months. There was a trend for economic hardship to predict CG 
depressive symptoms at 4 months (P = 0.09), but not at diagnosis. Economic 
hardship predicted CG anxiety at 4 months (P = 0.06), but not diagnosis. Results 
suggest caregivers' economic hardship is an important and dynamic aspect of the 
emotional health of neuro-oncology family caregivers.