Relaxation Therapy for Alzheimer's Caregivers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Aging baby boomers, longer life spans, and rising levels of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) will result in a major caregiver crisis in the near future. Although family caregivers perform an incredibly valuable service, they do so at a considerable cost to themselves both emotionally and physically. Effective stress management programs for caregivers are vitally needed to 1) help them decrease their stress, 2) improve their emotional and physical health, and 3) empower them to gain control of their lives. The overall goal of this randomized controlled clinical trial is to determine the effectiveness of a stress-busting program (SBP) for caregivers of patients with ADRD. Specific research aims include: 1) to prospectively determine the effects of a SBP compared to a standard support group (SSG) on quality of life, immune response, and relaxation response using bioinstrumentation to measure muscle tension, electrodermal response, skin temperature, blood volume pulse, and blood pressure and 2) to assess the effectiveness of SBP or SSG for adult children caregivers as compared to spousal caregivers based on quality of life measurements, immune parameters, and relaxation response. Subjects will be tested at baseline, at completion of 4 and 8 weeks of SBP or SSG, and at 2- and 4-month follow-up sessions to determine the long-term effectiveness of the intervention. The proposed 8- week multimodal SBP will focus on stress management, relaxation therapy, and education related to stress and relaxation, managing challenging behavior, depression, coping strategies, positive thinking, and taking time for oneself. The setting will be an educational support group. A repeated measures design will be used to determine the effectiveness of SBP compared to SSG. Outcomes will be measured using psychosocial instruments as well as state-of-the science technology including bioinstrumentation and immune parameters to measure biological responses. The SBP is proposed as a way to decrease the level of stress experienced by caregivers and teach them effective coping strategies. If SBP is found to be more effective than SSG in decreasing stress, improving quality of life, promoting relaxation, and/or enhancing immunocompetence in family caregivers, these findings would have important clinical significance for providing a cost effective health promotion strategy for a group of people who experience tremendous ongoing stress.