Depression

Objective: Depression is an adverse outcome frequently seen in carers.

Background: The well-being of informal carers of people with dementia is an important public health issue. Caring for an elderly relative with dementia may be burdensome and stressful, and can negatively affect the carer’s social, family, and professional life. The combination of loss, the physical demands of caregiving, prolonged distress, and biological vulnerabilities of older carers may compromise their physical health, increase social isolation, and increase the risk of anxiety and depressive disorders.

One hundred interviews were conducted with primary caregivers, with 63 held in the home of the caregiver and the remainder conducted in a location convenient to the caregiver. Each participant completed the Caregiver Well-Being Scale (CWB), the Caregiving Uplifts Scale (CUPL), the Caregiving Satisfaction Scale (CSS), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

The literature on carers of people with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is negligible compared to the vast literature on carers of people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and little research has compared the two groups. Research has mainly focused on identifying the behavioural characteristics of people with FTD or AD. The impact of these behaviours on the psychological well-being of carers of people with FTD is relatively unexplored.

Background: Most studies of exercise training for heart failure have been conducted on relatively young patients with little comorbidity. Such programmes are unsuitable for the majority of older frail heart failure patients.

Aims: To test the acceptability and tolerability of an outpatient exercise programme in older heart failure patients with comorbid disease.

Care of a person with mental illness involves multiple burdens, possibly leading to burnout. This study compares partners of persons with schizophrenia and depression with nursing staff based on dimensions of burnout. Nursing staff and partners of patients with schizophrenia or depression were consecutively recruited from psychiatric hospitals and interviewed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. No significant differences were found in the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) for the two groups of caregivers.

Background: The neuropsychiatric complications of Parkinson's disease (PD), which include behaviour disturbances such as apathy and the impulse control disorders (ICDs), may have a significant effect on patients with PD and their carers. The contribution of these behaviour disorders to carer burden is less understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the relationship that apathy and ICDs have with carer burden.

Purpose/Objectives: To explore linkages among empathic responding by informal caregivers with the physical symptom experiences and psychological distress of patients with ovarian cancer. Design: Preliminary, descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional. Setting: Psychosocial oncology support group in Canada. Sample: Convenience sample of 13 women with stage I-IV ovarian cancer with the majority diagnosed with disease recurrence. Methods: Data were collected on a single telephone call using the Hospital A

Objectives: The process of developing and living with dementia may activate attachment feelings and behaviours in people with dementia (PwD) and their carers. By obtaining information from both PwD and carer, we aimed to provide information on the nature and concordance of attachment patterns within the dyad and to examine the relative contribution of attachment representations in PwD and carers to the well-being of both parties.