Reviews research on depression in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Discusses evidence suggesting that depression affects many AD patients and can have profound effects on patient long-term functioning and caregiver well-being. Notes that field is dominated by studies of prevalence, as opposed to studies of etiology, association with other aspects of…

An abundance of literature on caregivers of individuals with dementia has been written since the mid-1980s. However, most of this literature focused on the experience of stress, burden, and depression in caregivers, thus excluding the grief experience that also accompanies the caregiving experience. The purpose of this multimethod study is to…

It is estimated that 13 million to 15 million adults in the United States have chronic conditions that impair cognitive function, such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and traumatic brain injury. The growing number of people with chronic conditions that include cognitive impairment and the family members who assist them face…

The neuropathological correlates of suicide in older persons have received little research attention. Our recent study of elderly suicide victims from an Australian forensic medicine department (n = 143), unlike a previous case-control study, did not find an increased prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in older persons who committed suicide…

Contrasted predictors of depression among 101 men and 214 women providing care to spouses suffering from Alzheimer's Disease using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies (CES-D) Depression Index. Results indicated that caregiving wives were more depressed and more burdened than were caregiving husbands. (Author/BHK)

Primary caregivers (n=41) of memory-impaired patients rated a standardized stimulus of depression and their actual patient. They were able to correctly identify depression in both. Further, their mood was unassociated with video ratings and only moderately associated with patient ratings. The findings support reliance on caregiver input.…

Examined strategies used by 170 Alzheimer's disease caregivers to cope with memory deficits, communication impairments, and decline of loved one. Wishfulness was related to more depressed affect, regardless of stressor type. Relaxation in response to memory deficits, and acceptance in dealing with communication impairments and decline of loved one…

Studied 82 family caregivers to identify positive and negative factors associated with caregiving. Instruments included two new scales designed to measure perceived positive and negative events in previous month. For new scales, only items significantly correlated with depressive symptomatology were retained. Findings suggest scales may be useful…

Purpose: This study developed and tested two 24-month primary care interventions to alleviate the psychological distress suffered by the caregivers of those with Alzheimer's disease. The interventions, using targeted educational materials, were patient behavior management only, and patient behavior management plus caregiver stress-coping…

Compared self- and other-rated depression in spousal caregivers for 23 Alzheimer's patients, 23 Parkinsons' Disease patients, and 23 control subjects. Two caregiver groups were similar in length of time they had been giving care and in caregiver distress and both caregiver groups were more depressed than control subjects. (Author/NB)

This article, based on a Lawton Award Lecture, addresses the subject of the need to enhance the evidence base in our field in order to influence processes of policy development. Four issues are identified as critical to this: theory-driven targets of public health significance, use of appropriate and sophisticated approaches to research design and…

Presents two strategies for treating depression in Alzheimer's patients: cognitive therapy for mildly demented adults which challenges patient's negative cognitions to reduce distortions and enable patient to generate more adaptive ways of viewing specific events; and behavioral intervention for moderately or severely demented adults which…

Purpose: We examined the impact of caregiver neuroticism on longitudinal change in depression among spouse-caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease receiving either enhanced psychosocial treatment or usual care. We were interested in whether high levels of caregiver neuroticism would lead to a diminished response to the enhanced…

Evaluated development of integrated family assessment inventory based on Double ABCX and Circumplex models of family functioning and its clinical utility with 121 primary family caregivers from cognitive disorders program. Proposed model predicted significant proportion of variance associated with caregiver stress and strain. Several aspects of…

Purpose: Although persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) require increasingly more assistance with activities of daily living as their disease progresses, the caregiving environment has received little attention as a source of predictors of their survival time. We report here on a study to determine whether variation in survival time of persons…