Study: dementia patients tended by caregivers in poor mental health may die sooner

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-27 07:01:20|Editor: Song Lifang
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SAN FRANCISCO, June 26 (Xinhua) -- A new study indicates that dementia patients tended by family caregivers with depression, anxiety and other symptoms of mental illness typically died sooner than those being looked after by caregivers in good mental health.

According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared to patients who were cared for by relatives in fairly good mental health, patients tended by family members in poor mental health died, on average, about 14 months sooner.

While the study does not provide definitive causal or directional evidence for the earlier death of patients whose caregivers are in poor mental health, "it highlights the mutual influence both parties' mental and physical states have on one another, and the extraordinarily high stakes that are involved," said study senior author Robert Levenson, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

From 2007 until 2016, UC Berkeley researchers tracked the mortality of 176 patients with neurodegenerative diseases that are corrosive to brain function, and measured the mental health of the family members who took care of them.

Of the caregivers, 85 percent were spouses, 8 percent were adult children, and 6 percent were siblings.

A patient's longevity was based on the number of days from their initial assessment at Levenson's Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory until their time of death, or, if they had not died, until the study cutoff date in May 2016. Of the 176 patients, 76 died during the course of the study.

Overall, the results showed that the mortality risk for patients was greater when their caregiver suffered from poor mental health, even when factoring in patients' gender, age, disease severity and mental health.

While caregivers may find their work rewarding and necessary, the everyday stress can take a toll on their mental well-being. Up to 40 percent of dementia caregivers suffer from depression. They also report above-average levels of anxiety, social isolation and frustration.

"We were able to meet and speak with a number of caregivers, many of whom talked about the challenges of watching their spouse or loved one slowly lose their sense of self and their ability to live independently," said study co-lead author Sandy Lwi.

The study notes that poor mental health in caregivers can can reduce the quality of patient care by raising the risk of neglect or abuse, weaken the patients' immune systems by compromising social bonds between the caregiver and patient, or transmit negative emotions directly to patients through a phenomenon known as emotion contagion, in which one person in a relationship absorbs the emotional responses of the other.

In the United States alone, more than 7 million people are estimated to suffer from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's (ALS) and Huntington's disease, all of which lead to gradual declines in cognitive, emotional and motor functioning.

The unrelenting progression of these diseases, with a rate of survival ranging from three to 10 years after initial diagnosis, means that patients are often cared for in the home by relatives or close friends who are not being paid for their work.

Researchers said they will continue to check in on the surviving caregiver-patient relationships in their study to dig deeper into the dynamics at play.

"Soaring rates of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases constitute one of the most pressing public health challenges of the present era, and this will become even more challenging as the population ages," Levenson said in a news release from UC Berkeley on Monday.

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