Coping With Primary Progressive Aphasia: Factors Predicting Caregiver Psychological Wellbeing and Burden

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Dementia caregiver impacts are known, but PPA-specific research, especially on non-language symptoms, is limited.
• Non-language symptoms like emotion recognition deficits and behavioral disturbances significantly affect PPA caregivers.
• Understanding these links is vital for targeted caregiver support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between non-language symptom profiles in PPA subtypes and caregiver outcomes.
• To examine the role of caregiver coping behaviors in mediating these relationships.
• To identify key predictors of psychological wellbeing and burden in PPA caregivers.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 96 PPA dyads (lvPPA, nfvPPA, svPPA) and 122 controls.
• Assessed caregiver outcomes using Zarit Burden Interview and DASS-21.
• Used regression models to analyze PPA symptom profiles, coping styles, and caregiver outcomes.

Main Results:

• Caregivers primarily used adaptive coping (problem-focused, emotion-focused).
• Dysfunctional coping negatively impacted caregiver wellbeing and increased burden.
• Caregiver burden was predicted by PPA emotion recognition deficits and behavioral disturbance; wellbeing by dysfunctional coping.

Conclusions:

• Non-language symptoms in PPA significantly impact caregiver wellbeing and burden.
• Interventions should focus on adaptive coping skills for caregivers.
• Monitoring caregiver burden is crucial, especially with non-language symptoms present.