[Effects of family-centered group therapy with demented patients and their caregivers]

Alzheimer's disease, the most frequent cause of dementia, progressively takes the ability of acting autonomously from the sufferers, makes them more and more dependent from their partners and eventually dissolves their personal identity. The present 2-year study which conducted a novel form of family-centered group therapy with demented patients and their primary caregivers investigated the effects of an open, uncontrolled group therapy approach in 32 families (demented patients and caregivers) over a five-months period with weekly sessions, by using the BEHAVE-AD and the NOSGER for the moderately demented patients and the Befindlichkeits-Skala (BfS) for the primary caregivers. In addition, a structured instrument to determine the patterns of interaction between patient and caregiver was administered prospectively at each of the weekly sessions. The results demonstrate a significant improvement of communication abilities among the patients and a significant reduction of coping problems and of care burden with respect to the caregivers. The present family-centered group therapy shows that over a period of 5 months functional and communication abilities of the moderately demented patients may be maintained and caregiver burden may be significantly reduced.