(provided by candidate): This is a revised application for a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01). The candidate is a social psychologist who proposes to acquire the knowledge and skills to design and implement psychosocial interventions for family caregivers to clinically-depressed older adults. Depression in late life is associated with increased health care utilization, amplification of physical disability, cognitive impairment, and increased risk for suicide. Although remission of late-life depression can be achieved with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, the long-term prognosis for patients is mixed. Family members who provide support and physical assistance to depressed older patients are at high risk for psychiatric and physical morbidity of their own, and may play a critical role in patient treatment adherence and response. The candidate's proposed career development activities focus on acquiring knowledge of the pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic treatment of late-life depression, as a platform for additional training and research activities focused on the assessment and psychosocial treatment of family caregivers to late-life depression patients. In addition, the candidate aims to master advanced statistical techniques for analyzing treatment outcomes for older depressed patients and their family caregivers. The Research Plan of this application includes a study that will examine the prospective relationships between caregiver factors (knowledge, attitudes, burden, and psychiatric symptomatology) and patient treatment adherence and response. A second study will evaluate a pilot psychosocial treatment for adult children of older adults receiving psychiatric treatment for major depression that is designed to provide these caregivers with information and support. Treatment benefits experienced by caregivers may extend to older patients by increasing the likelihood that they will recover from depression and stay well.
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