ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT CAREGIVERS: EXPERIMENTAL DRUG TREATMENT PARTICIPATION AS A MODERATOR OF CAREGIVER OUTCOMES (DEPRESSION).
Contributors: Texas Tech University.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 147
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Social Work.
Description: Caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease has been associated with a variety of negative outcomes (Gallagher et al., 1989). Hence, it is important to gain an understanding of the factors that contribute to these outcomes as an avenue toward identifying interventions that may have moderating effects. There is a growing body of evidence that psychological resources and social support can mitigate the impact of caregiving stressors. Psychological resources may include appraisals, coping skills and expectancies, while social support may range from formal services to informal family networks. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how involvement in an experimental drug treatment affected expectancies and/or appraisals about caregiving and the care receiver's condition. Antecedent variables that have been inconsistently linked with negative caregiver outcomes were also examined. This study had two phases of assessment, with 166 caregivers participating at Time 1 and 109 caregivers six weeks later at Time 2. There were four treatment conditions reflecting two different drug conditions, a screening failure condition and a group uninvolved in research. Within each treatment group, both primary and non-primary caregivers were assessed for burden, depression, hopelessness, anger, desire to institutionalize (DTI), locus of control, positive outcomes and optimistic expectancies.

Research participation resulted in decreased negative outcomes and more positive expectations. Measures of time dependent burden provided support for the "wear and tear" hypothesis of caregiving, although those who had been in that role longest had less DTI. Spouses generally experienced more negative outcome than primary adult son or daughter caregivers, but the latter reported more DTI and social burden. Emotional burden was equivalent for primary and non-primary caregivers. There were few gender differences; men experienced more time burden, while women reported more developmental burden. There was support for the positive effect of research participation over and above these group differences that result from differential severity of patient conditions. Practical implications of these findings are discussed, along with limitations of the present study and directions for future research.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-05, Section: B, page: 2853.

Thesis (PH.D.)--TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, 1995.

School code: 0230.