Effects of Phone-Based Psychological Intervention on Caregivers of Patients with Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease: A Six-Months Study during the COVID-19 Emergency in Italy.
Manuela De StefanoSabrina EspositoAlessandro IavaroneMichele Carpinelli MazziMattia SicilianoDaniela BuonannoDanilo AtripaldiFrancesca TrojsiGioacchino TedeschiPublished in: Brain sciences (2022)
Caregivers of patients with early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) experience higher level of burden, stress, and depression, due to premature role changes and social isolation. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic compelled restrictions regarding social interactions and mobility in Italy from March 2020, prompting telemedicine approaches for supporting patients and their families confined at home. We reported our experience regarding the effects of psychological phone-intervention (phone-I) on EOAD caregivers during pandemic. Twenty caregivers of EOAD patients were randomly assigned to treatment (TG) or control (CG) group. TG weekly underwent a phone-I for one month. All participants were assessed for caregiver burden and needs, anxiety and depression levels, and subjective impact of traumatic events at baseline (T0), at the fifth week (T1) and after 6 months (T2) from phone-I. We observed higher vulnerability to post-traumatic stress in TG compared to CG in all timepoints ( p ≤ 0.05). Decreased stress effects and caregiver burden were revealed in TG at T1 compared to T0 ( p ≤ 0.05), although showing an increase of these measures at T2 in the treated caregivers. Our findings suggest that although TG showed a peculiar vulnerability to post-traumatic stress, they showed increased wellbeing immediately after phone-I. However, this benefit disappeared six months later, along with the second infection wave, probably due to "exhaustion stage" achievement in "General Adaptation Syndrome". This trend may suggest a beneficial but not solving role of a prompt phone-I on burden of caregivers of EOAD patients during the SARS-CoV-2 emergency.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- early onset
- end stage renal disease
- palliative care
- newly diagnosed
- ejection fraction
- chronic kidney disease
- healthcare
- emergency department
- randomized controlled trial
- late onset
- public health
- prognostic factors
- mental health
- spinal cord injury
- clinical trial
- cognitive decline
- sleep quality
- stress induced
- patient reported outcomes
- single cell
- study protocol
- double blind
- patient reported