Effectiveness of Family Stress-Relief Interventions for Patients with Dementia: A Systematic Evaluation of Literature

Abstract

Dalia Codruța Maria Stoia,1 Adelina Ștefănuț,1 Romina Moldovan,2 Lavinia Hogea,3 Cătălina Giurgi-Oncu,4 Cristina Bredicean4 1Department of Psychology, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania; 2“Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara, Romania; 3Discipline of Psychology, Department of Neuroscience, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara, Romania; 4Discipline of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara, RomaniaCorrespondence: Cătălina Giurgi-OncuDepartment of Neuroscience, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara, RomaniaEmail [email protected]: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of stress-relief interventions for family members of patients with dementia.Data Source: This analysis includes peer-reviewed articles published between 1989 and 2019, selected from online databases. The introduced keywords were: stress reduction, dementia, or Alzheimer’s; program, therapy, intervention, or technique; caregivers.For the Selection of Studies: We utilized the following inclusion criteria: (1) studies with experimental or quasi-experimental design; (2) study samples that include adult caregivers, who take care of other family members diagnosed with various types of dementia; (3) testing one or more types of psychological inferences presented in the study has been conducted to reduce the stress of patients with dementia; (4) studies written in English and subjected to a peer-review process.Results: Stress-reduction interventions for patients with dementia appear to have had a statistically significant effect in most of the identified studies.Conclusion: On a qualitative level, the results show the effectiveness of both pre-test and follow-up interventions, but these results are to be regarded cautiously, considering the heterogeneity of the evaluation tools used and the small number of studies included.Keywords: stress-relieving interventions, family members, dementia

Keywords

• stress-relieving interventions
• family members
• dementia.