Reducing anxiety in Alzheimer's disease family caregivers: The effectiveness of a nine-week cognitive-behavioral intervention

Abstract

Although the literature is replete with studies examining the psychological concomitants and interventions for Alzheimer's disease (AD) family caregivers, a surprisingly small amount of research exists on anxiety. Given prevalence rates suggesting that anxiety significantly impacts one in three family caregivers, brief group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions may offer assistance. To assess CBT's effectiveness, 38 anxious AD family caregivers were recruited and randomly assigned to a nine-week group CBT intervention or to a waitlist control. Caregivers randomized to CBT demonstrated less anxiety on self-report and clinician-administered questionnaires than waitlist group participants at posttreatment and six-week follow-up assessments. A subsample of caregivers also demonstrated improved sleep, as assessed through actigraph measurements. Additional study is recommended with diverse anxious family caregiving groups to further investigate the effectiveness of brief CBT group interventions.