Caregiver interventions for behavioral symptoms in Alzheimer\u27s and dementia patients

As people are living longer, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia is rising dramatically. While preventative and treatment methods are being developed for these complicated disorders, attention also has been directed towards caregivers, because they play a vital role in the way the patients’ symptoms are handled and how well the patients adjust overall. Caregivers are almost always family members who lack formal training in caring for dementia patients. The purpose of this research was to see whether caregivers who follow interventions suggested in the literature experience fewer or less intense behavioral problems on the part of the patient than caregivers who do not. A questionnaire designed to assess this was sent to caregivers attending support group meetings arranged through the Great Lakes Alzheimer’s Association. The main hypothesis was not supported, but several significant correlations were found between behavioral symptom expression and the demographics of the caregivers and patients. Reasons for the findings and the implications of the findings are discussed