Treating Family Caregivers To Late-Life Deprssion Pts

描述(由候选人提供)：这是一份修改后的研究科学家发展指导奖(K01)申请表。候选人是一名社会心理学家，他建议获得知识和技能，为患有临床抑郁症的老年人的家庭照顾者设计和实施心理社会干预。老年抑郁症与卫生保健利用率的提高、身体残疾的扩大、认知障碍和自杀风险的增加有关。虽然老年抑郁症的缓解可以通过药物治疗和心理治疗来实现，但患者的长期预后好坏参半。为老年抑郁症患者提供支持和身体帮助的家庭成员本身就有很高的精神和身体疾病风险，并可能在患者坚持治疗和应对方面发挥关键作用。候选人拟议的职业发展活动侧重于获取晚年抑郁症的药理学和心理治疗方面的知识，作为开展额外培训和研究活动的平台，重点是对晚年抑郁症患者的家庭照顾者进行评估和心理社会治疗。此外，候选人的目标是掌握先进的统计技术，以分析老年抑郁症患者及其家庭照顾者的治疗结果。这项应用的研究计划包括一项研究，该研究将检查照顾者因素(知识、态度、负担和精神症状学)与患者治疗依从性和反应之间的预期关系。第二项研究将评估一项针对接受严重抑郁症精神治疗的老年人成年子女的社会心理治疗试点，旨在为这些照顾者提供信息和支持。通过增加老年患者从抑郁中恢复并保持良好状态的可能性，照顾者所获得的治疗好处可能会延伸到老年患者。

DESCRIPTION (provided by candidate): This is a revised application for a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01). The candidate is a social psychologist who proposes to acquire the knowledge and skills to design and implement psychosocial interventions for family caregivers to clinically-depressed older adults. Depression in late life is associated with increased health care utilization, amplification of physical disability, cognitive impairment, and increased risk for suicide. Although remission of late-life depression can be achieved with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, the long-term prognosis for patients is mixed. Family members who provide support and physical assistance to depressed older patients are at high risk for psychiatric and physical morbidity of their own, and may play a critical role in patient treatment adherence and response. The candidate's proposed career development activities focus on acquiring knowledge of the pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic treatment of late-life depression, as a platform for additional training and research activities focused on the assessment and psychosocial treatment of family caregivers to late-life depression patients. In addition, the candidate aims to master advanced statistical techniques for analyzing treatment outcomes for older depressed patients and their family caregivers. The Research Plan of this application includes a study that will examine the prospective relationships between caregiver factors (knowledge, attitudes, burden, and psychiatric symptomatology) and patient treatment adherence and response. A second study will evaluate a pilot psychosocial treatment for adult children of older adults receiving psychiatric treatment for major depression that is designed to provide these caregivers with information and support. Treatment benefits experienced by caregivers may extend to older patients by increasing the likelihood that they will recover from depression and stay well.