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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Long-term effects of bereavement and caregiver intervention on dementia caregiver depressive symptoms | | Author(s) | William E Haley, Elizabeth J Bergman, David L Roth |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 48, no 6, December 2008 |
| Pages | pp 732-740 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Spouses as carers ; Bereavement ; Depression ; Evaluation ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | 254 Alzheimer's caregivers from the New York University Caregiver Intervention (NYUCI), a randomised trial enhanced caregiver support versus usual care who had experienced the death of their spouse, were repeatedly assessed with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) prior to and following bereavement. Random effects regression growth curve analyses examined the effects of treatment group and bereavement while controlling for other variables. The death of the care recipient led to reductions in depressive symptoms for both caregiving groups. Enhanced support intervention led to lower depressive symptoms compared with controls both before and after bereavement. Post-bereavement group differences were stronger for caregivers of spouses who did not previously experience a nursing home placement. These caregivers maintained these differences for more than one year after bereavement. Caregivers who received the enhanced support intervention were more likely to show long-term patterns of fewer depressive symptoms both before and after bereavement, suggesting resilience, whereas control caregivers were more likely to show chronic depressive symptoms before and after the death of their spouse. Clinical strategies such as that described may protect caregivers against chronic depressive symptoms that would otherwise persist long after caregiving ends. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090605213 A |
| Classmark | EA: P6:SN: DW: ENR: 4C: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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