THURSDAY, Aug. 17, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Offering caregivers the education, skills and support that helps them care for a relative with dementia can also help them cope with the death of their loved one, researchers report.
The intervention, designed to ward off depression and increase coping skills, also seems to prevent complicated grief and depression among caregivers after the death of their ill family member, says a team from the University of Pittsburgh.
"Our findings show that care-giving is closely intertwined with the bereavement experience that follows," study lead author and psychiatry professor Richard Schulz said in a prepared statement.
Complicated grief can occur in people after the death of someone with whom they've had a close and loving relationship. Features of complicated grief include a sense of disbelief about the death; anger and bitterness; recurrent pangs of painful emotions with intense yearning and longing for the deceased; avoiding situations and activities that are reminders of the loss; and being preoccupied with thoughts of the person.
Little is known about how to prevent and treat complicated grief, which is a newly-characterized condition. This is the first study to demonstrate the effectiveness of this kind of intervention in preventing complicated grief, the study authors said.
This study of over 1,200 caregivers found that reducing caregiver burden, treating caregiver depression prior to the death of a loved one, and providing psychological or skills training helped the caregivers better cope with the death of a loved one.
"Family members caring for relatives with advanced disease would not only benefit from traditional care-giving interventions designed to ease the burden of care but also from pre-bereavement treatments that would better prepare them for the impending death of their loved one," Schulz said.
The study was published in the August issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about caregiver stress.
