Caregivers to nondementing Parkinson's disease patients scored 35.88 on the scale, while controls scored 33.77. When people with dementia such as Alzheimer's disease patients become seriously ill, their caregivers become guards, making sure the ill individual doesn't wander away or injure himself or herself. But the person with Alzheimer's disease may become so unruly and so demanding that the caregiver does not have any life of her own. In some ways the caregiver imprisons the patient and the patient imprisons the caregiver. Dr. Owens said sometimes the demands of caring for the patient are so great a caregiver cannot even make a telephone call without the patient demanding attention.
Contacts become less and less, and, outside of the home, relationships are fewer and fewer.
As the patient loses contact with reality, he or she may develop paranoid suspiciousness, Dr. Kaslow said. Dr. Owens and colleagues, discussing their results at the 108th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, said that even though Parkinson's disease patients also require considerable attention from caregivers, the feeling of loneliness is not as pervasive. He said some caregivers found that after they were forced to institutionalize a patient the level of loneliness lifted. They were able to meet with people, have phone conversations and begin to find they had a life outside of that as a caregiver, he said. Often, dementia patients in nursing facilities will complain the spouse never visits even though the caregiver might attend to the recipient daily.