Psychosocial interventions for caregivers of people with dementia: A systematic review
- 1 May 2001
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Aging & Mental Health
- Vol. 5 (2), 120-135
- https://doi.org/10.1080/713650019
Abstract
The content of interventions for caregivers of dementia patients is highly varied. None of the reviews conducted to date have focused on evaluating the effects of the content of interventions exclusively for dementia caregivers, and this issue is not well understood. The purpose of this review was to first identify the type of components (e.g. education, counselling) that have been utilized in psychosocial/psycho-educational interventions for dementia caregivers, and to evaluate the success of the different components or combination of components in producing positive outcomes for dementia caregivers. Forty studies were included in the review. Approximately two-thirds of the interventions did not show improvements in any outcome measures. Among those studies, which did demonstrate improvements, the inclusion of social components (e.g. social support) or a combination of social and cognitive (e.g. problem solving) components seemed to be relatively effective. It is important to note, however, that these analyses were based on small numbers and the review was limited by a number of methodological issues (e.g. poor description of interventions). To advance our understanding of the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for caregivers of people with dementia, a more systematic approach is required. Intervention components need to be carefully contrasted in appropriately designed studies of sufficient size.This publication has 69 references indexed in Scilit:
- Effectiveness of cognitive–behavioural family intervention in reducing the burden of care in carers of patients with Alzheimer's diseaseThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 2000
- Coping With Dementia: Evaluation of Four Nonpharmacologic InterventionsInternational Psychogeriatrics, 2000
- Helping the family carers of Alzheimer’s patients: from theory…to practice. A preliminary studyArchives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 2000
- The Caregiver’s Role in Alzheimer’s DiseaseDementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 1998
- A preliminary study of the effects of early intervention with people with dementia and their families in a memory clinicAging & Mental Health, 1998
- Quasi‐experimental evaluation of an educational model for dementia caregiversInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 1994
- Efficacy of a support group programme for care-givers of demented patients in the community: a randomized controlled trialArchives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 1994
- CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUPS: EFFICACY ISSUES FOR EDUCATORSEducational Gerontology, 1994
- Counselling carers of the elderly at home: A preliminary studyBritish Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1988
- Depression in the Normal AgedPsychosomatics, 1967