Mental health, stress correlates and psychotropic drug use or non-use among aged caregivers to elders with dementia

The goal of the study was to compare caregivers who used psychotropic drugs with caregivers who were non-users in order to pinpoint differences in cop ing styles between the two groups. We performed a secondary analysis of a s tudy on the stress and psychological well-being of persons caring for relat ives with dementia. We compared elderly caregivers, as either psychotropic drug users (n = 61) or non-users (n = 133), over various psychosocial chara cteristics relating to the care-giving context. Results reveal that users, as compared to non-users were: (a) more disturbed (appraised a greater stre ss) by the relative's dysfunctional behaviours, after controlling for the f requency of the behaviours; and (b) experienced more conflict during interp ersonal interactions, although their appraisal of self-satisfaction with fo rmal and informal support to their care-giving activities did not differ si gnificantly. Strikingly, users combined and called on a greater number of p roblem-focused and emotion-reducing coping strategies than did non-users. T hey more frequently used affective regulation and information seeking copin g styles. Stress-related measures (especially stress appraisal and conflict ) contributed more to the variation in mental distress of users than of non -users. Results provide a theoretical and empirical rationale for therapeut ic interventions such as the cognitive behavioural approach.