Written Emotional Expression &Caregiver Burden Outcomes

Butcher, Howard

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of structured written emotional expression (SWEE) in decreasing the emotional and physiological burdens in family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer disease and related disorders (ADRD). SWEE is an intervention postulated to facilitate the making of meaning and involves asking participants to write for a brief an account expressing their deepest thoughts and feelings about a stressful and traumatic experience. Negative consequences from the stress of ADRD caregiving are well documented in the research literature with family caregivers being more stressed, burdened, and depressed than non-caregivers.
The specific aims of this study are to: 1) determine the effect of SWEE on finding meaning (Finding Meaning Through Caregiving Scale); 2) determine the mediating effects of finding meaning on caregiver burden (Burden Interview), depression (CES-D), self reported physical symptoms (Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness), and salivary cortisol measured QID over two days; and 3) determine the effect of SWEE on caregiver burden, depression, self-reported physical symptoms, and salivary cortisol. Caregivers will experience a total of three 20-minute writing sessions scheduled every other day. All outcome measures will be collected at pretest, 4th and 5th day post-test, and twice at one-month post intervention. The researchers hypothesize that caregivers experiencing SWEE will report higher provisional finding meaning and that higher provisional meaning is positively associated with lower caregiver burden, decreased depression, decreased self-reported physical symptoms, and decreased salivary cortisol dysregulation. Given the negative health outcomes in family ADRD caregivers, an easily administered and low cost intervention that has an impact on improving the health outcomes is both significant and timely.