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By Lindsay Braun, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- There's no question that having Alzheimer's disease is hard to cope with, but being a spouse of someone with Alzheimer's can be just as tough. Caring for someone with Alzheimer's can take a physical toll on the caregiver's health, but new research reveals support and counseling can keep caregivers healthy.
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A team of researchers led by Mary Mittelman, Dr.P.H., research professor in the department of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, collected data from 406 spouse caregivers of Alzheimer's patients over two decades. "This is part of a long-term study that's been going on since 1897, we were doing a multi-dimensional assessment to look at what got better with intervention," Dr. Mittelman told Ivanhoe.
Mittelman and her team developed an intervention program that they administered to study participants. The program includes six sessions of individual and family counseling, support groups, and telephone counseling for the caregiver. "I think the family piece may be the most important piece," Dr. Mittelman said. "Different cultures define families differently, so it was up to the patient who they wanted to bring," Dr. Mittelman added.
Caregivers in the study who received the intervention reported less of a decline in their physical health than the caregivers who received normal care. The caregivers who received the intervention also reported being able to care for their spouses an average of one and a half years longer before putting them in a nursing home. Study authors also note the intervention helped ease depression in caregivers. "I think the most important thing is to feel supported by family and friends, and that leads to both of outcomes -- better physical health and mental health," Dr. Mittelman said.
Currently, there are 5 million people in the United States who are caring for an Alzheimer's patient. Dr. Mittelman says she hopes the benefits of this research will be felt on a large scale. "While the effects were small, if you multiply this by the number of caregivers, it could have a huge public health effect," Dr. Mittelman said.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Mary Mittelman, Dr.P.H.; American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2007;15:780-789
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