Experimental Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Group Intervention for Dementia Caregivers

Abstract

Family caregivers of elderly community-dwelling dementia patients who were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 types of support groups completed pregroup, postgroup, and followup assessments. A waiting list condition was also used. Results indicated that although caregivers rated the groups as quite helpful, group participation did not lead to improvements on objective measures of depression, life satisfaction, social support, or coping variables. Discussed are methodological issues in assessing the efficacy of caregiver groups, as well as clinical implications.