The effectiveness of psychoeducation in reducing the burden of caregivers of patients with dementia

Introduction: The symptoms of dementia, progressive cognitive and functional impairment and behavioral prob- lems often burden caregivers of patients with dementia. A variety of interventions, such as counseling, educational intervention and psychoeducation, have been implemented to reduce the burden on caregivers of patients with dementia but with conflicting results.

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of psychoeducational intervention on reducing the burden on caregivers of patients with dementia.

Methodology: A systematic review of the international literature was conducted. in the “National Documentation Center”, PubMed and Scopus databases and was based on the preferred set of items for reporting in systematic re- views and meta-analysis (PRISMA). Randomized controlled and/or quasi-experimental studies were selected which investigated the effect of any educational intervention on reducing the burden on caregivers of patients with de- mentia. The studies were published in English or Greek between 2005 to 2019. The key words used in the search were a combination of the terms:“Dementia”,“Caregivers”,“Pshychoeducation”OR Pshychoeducational interventions”, “Burden”. Studies that did not describe in detail the educational intervention or the intervention included the use of medication or care assistance by a professional with or without pay, were excluded. The extracted data were reviewed by independent reviewer pairs.

Results: Ten studies were included. Six studies that implemented a psychoeducational intervention managed to re- duce the burden of caregivers, while no study showed an increase in the burden. A reduction in the burden was ob- served mainly in the studies that the psychoeducation included techniques of strengthening the caregiver’s health, self-care and mainly tried to encourage the caregivers to participate in leisure activities and to create positive emo- tions. The provision of psychoeducational intervention was mainly interdisciplinary while nurses had an active role in the design and implementation of the research.

Conclusions. Individualized and tailored to caregivers’needs psychoeducational interventions can reduce the burden on caregivers of patients with dementia. Nurses play an important role in the planning and implementation of these interventions and therefore can help reduce the burden on caregivers of dementia patients.