The Effects of Coping Strategies for Alzheimer's Disease Caregivers

Family caregivers have been described as the ???hidden victims??? of Alzheimer???s Disease (AD) because of all of the tremendous losses that they face (Zarit, 1985). Research has indicated that rates of anxiety and depression are higher in caregivers than non-caregivers (Mahoney, Regan, Katona, & Livingston, 2005). The aim of this research was to examine negative mental health outcomes and the effect of coping on caregivers of Alzheimer???s disease patients. The first research question was about the determinants of negative psychological well-being among caregivers of patients with AD. The second research question was whether there are effective programs/interventions that can assist caregivers of patients with AD with their mental health. To address the research questions, two literature reviews were conducted. The reviews revealed that dysfunctional coping strategies were linked with anxiety and depression in caregivers of individuals with AD. Using disengagement coping also led to high depression scores, but this was associated with higher caregiver burden and more hours spent caring for the person with AD (Garcia-Alberca et al., 2012b). The interventions reviewed included the following: cognitive-behavioral therapy, brief psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychoeducational programs, individual or psychosocial/support group counseling, and adult day care. These interventions/programs were intended to provide support, skills, and education to caregivers and reduce their stress. It was evident that these interventions provided relief to families by enhancing their coping and caregiving skills, improving the management of care-recipient behaviors, and essentially decreasing caregiver burden, depression, and anxiety (Nichols et al., 2008). The results of this project provide insight into predictors of negative mental health symptoms in caregivers of individuals with AD and provide recommendations for future studies examining the relationship between coping strategies and psychological distress in caregivers