The importance of awareness: An experience of small support groups for thecaregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients

Alzheimer disease (AD) frequently appears with neuropsychiatric, as well as cognitive manifestations. Depression may occur at any stage of the disease ; it affects up to 40% of patients with AD and may be accompanied by psycho sis. Antidepressants have not been extensively studied in this population. Antipsychotic drugs are frequently prescribed, but their use is limited by side-effects. Behavioral disturbance leads to more intense and expensive le vels of treatment, increased morbidity and mortality. Disturbances in behav ior are often the cause for a considerable distress of both the patient and the caregiver, often leading to a rapid decline in the health of the careg iver and the most frequent reason of institutionalization. Not all of the t reatments of AD patient should or will be pharmacological, a support-interv ention improving the interaction between caregiver and patient, offers the best approach to reduce the impact on patients, caregivers and society. Our findings demonstrate that a better management may be determined by taking time to listen to the caregiver's specific problems, evaluating the difficu lty of care and offering some specific suggestions of possibly calming and reassuring effects.