Steep disturbances in caregivers of persons with dementia: Contributing factors and treatment implications

Estimates suggest that there are more than 10 million adult caregivers of persons with dementia, two-thirds of who experience some form of steep disturbance during the course of their caregiving career. Health care professionals are in the best position to detect and address this significant public health problem. Three major contributors to caregiver steep disturbance are discussed in this paper: (1) the presence of caregiver disrupted steep routines; (2) caregiver burden and depression; and, (3) the caregiver's physical health status. Successful treatment of a caregiver's steep disturbance requires careful consideration of each of these contributors. We review and analyze the scientific literature concerning the multiple complex factors associated with the development and maintenance of steep disturbances in caregivers. We provide a clinical vignette that illustrates the interplay of these contributing factors, and close by providing recommendations for clinicians and researchers treating and investigating the development and maintenance of steep problems in family caregivers. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. ALL rights reserved.