In 2009, nearly 66 million Americans (three in 10 U.S. households) reported at least one person providing unpaid care as a family caregiver. More adults with chronic conditions and disabilities are living at home than ever before, and family caregivers have an even higher level of responsibility. Caring for loved ones is associated with several benefits, including personal fulfillment. However,...

BACKGROUND Caregivers of relatives with Alzheimer's disease are highly stressed and at risk for physical and psychiatric conditions. Interventions are usually focused on providing caregivers with knowledge of dementia, skills, and/or support, to help them cope with the stress. This model, though true to a certain extent, ignores how caregiver stress is construed in the first place. Besides burd...

BACKGROUND Over 50 million informal caregivers in the United States provide care to an aging adult, saving the economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually from costly hospitalization or institutionalization. Despite the benefits associated with caregiving, caregiver stress can lead to negative physical and mental health consequences, or "caregiver burden". Given these potential negative co...

Using family systems theory as a theoretical framework, we investigated direct and indirect associations between type of disability, caregiver burden, and sibling relationships with structural equation modeling. We recruited 172 families raising typically developing children or a child with a disability. Participants volunteered at meetings and workshops for families of children with disabiliti...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Stroke symptoms can be very stressful for family caregivers, but most knowledge about the prevalence and stressfulness of stroke-related patient problems is derived from convenience samples. In addition, little is known about perceived benefits of the stroke caregiving experience. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and stressfulness of stroke-relate...

OBJECTIVES To test the effects of an intervention that helps families manage distressing behaviors in family members with dementia. DESIGN Two-group randomized trial. SETTING In home. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred seventy-two caregivers and people with dementia. INTERVENTION Up to 11 home and telephone contacts over 16 weeks by health professionals who identified potential triggers of patien...

BACKGROUND Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI) are widely used in dementia, but there is a lack of practice guidelines in case of intolerance or absence of perceived effect. METHODS Two hundred and forty patients (mean age 77 years, SD 6.3, 66% female) with Alzheimer's disease or Lewy body dementia were prescribed a ChEI and evaluated annually under conditions of standard practice. Of these, 152...

OBJECTIVE The authors systematically reviewed the literature on psychological approaches to treating the neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia. METHOD Reports of studies that examined effects of any therapy derived from a psychological approach that satisfied prespecified criteria were reviewed. Data were extracted, the quality of each study was rated, and an overall rating was given to each ...

Effective communication by nursing home staff is related to a higher quality of life and a decrease in verbal and physical aggression and depression in nursing home residents. Several communication intervention studies have been conducted to improve communication between nursing home staff and nursing home residents with dementia. These studies have shown that communication skills training can ...