Conditions

Introduction: The transition into adulthood is a developmental stage within the life cycle. A chronic childhood condition can disrupt this transition and create major challenges for both the young person and his or her family. Little is known about families' experiences when living with a rare genetic disease. Therefore, the purpose of this literature review was to understand experiences of families living with a chronic childhood disease during transition into adulthood by integrating evidence.

There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the United Kingdom today, and there is currently no diseasemodifying intervention available for any form of the condition. Costs from dementia to the UK economy are currently estimated to be over L24 billion a year and approximately 700,000 people are informal carers for people who have dementia. While age is the biggest risk factor for developing dementia, the condition is not an inevitable part of ageing. Other factors such as medical history, lifestyle and genetics may also contribute to the risk of developing dementia.

Caring for patients with various conditions is demanding and stressful and can have a negative impact on both physical and psychological health. This paper reports a systematic review and critical appraisal of the evidence on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction for the family caregivers of patients with various conditions. There were improvements in the self-rated psychological symptoms, such as stress, depression, anxiety and mindfulness.