ATTACHMENT STYLE AND EMOTION REGULATION IN DEMENTIA PATIENTS AND THEIR RELATION TO CAREGIVER BURDEN

One hundred and sixty-eight patients with mid- to late-stage dementia and their caregivers participated in a study of the relation between p atient emotional characteristics, dementia symptomatology, and caregiv er burden. Measures included premorbid attachment style, premorbid emo tion regulation style, and behavioral symptoms of dementia. The attach ment patterns (secure, avoidant, ambivalent) of these elderly patients resembled those obtained in samples of younger individuals in terms o f emotion regulation characteristics; however, the distribution of att achment styles was significantly different, with a lower proportion of ambivalently attached individuals in the present sample. In terms of the behavioral symptoms of dementia, ambivalent patients had more depr ession and anxiety than secure and avoidant patients; the latter patie nts experienced more activity disturbance than ambivalently attached i ndividuals and were higher on paranoid symptomatology than securely at tached persons. Caregivers of securely attached individuals experience d less total burden than did caregivers of both insecure groups. In re gression analysis, attachment style accounted for the largest proporti on of unique variance in the prediction of caregiver burden (8%); only 1 of 7 patient symptoms contributed a significant independent Effect, namely depressed affect, which accounted for 4% of the variance.