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The experience of caregiving: differences between behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer disease.
Published Web Location
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4005886/No data is associated with this publication.
Abstract
Objective
To examine caregiver strain, depression, perceived sense of control, and distress from patient neuropsychiatric symptoms in family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer disease (AD) and behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and determine whether group differences exist.Methods
Family caregivers were recruited from the Memory and Aging Center in San Francisco, California. Analyses of cross-sectional data on 53 family caregivers (AD = 31, bvFTD = 22) were performed. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to contrast groups.Results
There were statistically significant differences between the AD and bvFTD caregivers in strain, distress, and perceived control but not in depression. On average, bvFTD caregivers experienced greater strain and distress, more depressive symptoms, and lower perceived control.Conclusions
Findings support that experiences of AD and bvFTD caregivers may differ. Further study is needed to identify possible explanatory factors for these group differences.Many UC-authored scholarly publications are freely available on this site because of the UC's open access policies. Let us know how this access is important for you.