More than four million Americans suffer from dementia-related disorders including Alzheimer's disease and stroke related dementia, with estimates of up to 7.4 million by the year 2040. Family members provide the majority of community-based care for people with dementia, often over a very long period of time. There is considerable research on family caregiving that has looked at the significant personal, psychological, social and health impacts of providing care for family member with dementia;these include high rates of stress, depression, anxiety, poor health, compromised immune function, and poor quality of life. Current programs to help caregivers manage stress and decease burden often provide a multi-component psycho-educational approach to teach caregivers how to better manage their caregiving role. An approach focused specifically on stress reduction could provide greater impact for the long-term chronic stresses of caregiving. Mind-body based complementary therapies such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) may offer a safe, practical and cost-effective method of stress reduction for caregivers. MBSR is currently used in clinics, hospitals, and HMOs in the U.S. and abroad. The primary goals of this exploratory/developmental (R21) study are to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a MBSR intervention for caregivers of patients with dementia, and to estimate the effectiveness of program outcomes on standardized measures of perceived stress, psychological distress and caregiver burden. We will randomize 60 caregivers 1:1 to participate in: 1.) an intervention arm consisting of a MBSR program that includes 8 weeks of group instruction in mindfulness meditation techniques followed by home practice, or 2.) an active control arm consisting of a standard 8 week Community Caregiver Education and Support (CCES) program. We anticipate that caregivers will be interested in participating in the intervention, be open to randomization, and have good rates of compliance with the program. It is also expected that MBSR program participants will evidence a trend toward better outcomes than CCES participants on primary outcome measures of perceived stress, psychological distress and perceived caregiver burden.
| Whitebird, Robin R; Kreitzer, MaryJo; Crain, A Lauren et al. (2013) Mindfulness-based stress reduction for family caregivers: a randomized controlled trial. Gerontologist 53:676-86 |
| Whitebird, Robin R; Kreitzer, Mary Jo; Lewis, Beth A et al. (2011) Recruiting and retaining family caregivers to a randomized controlled trial on mindfulness-based stress reduction. Contemp Clin Trials 32:654-61 |
