Life Enhancing Activities for Family Caregivers of People With Frontotemporal Dementia
Abstract
Aberrant psychological and behavioral symptoms are common in patients with dementia. These symptoms have negative consequences for family caregivers, causing stress and burden. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) symptoms cause more pronounced stress and burden on caregivers than those associated with Alzheimer dementia. In this randomized, attention control pilot study, we delivered 5-weekly, one-on-one, positive affect intervention sessions to family caregivers of people with FTD. The program, Life Enhancing Activities for Family Caregivers: LEAF was conducted in-person or by videoconference with caregivers across the United States. Measures of affect, caregiver mood, stress, distress, and caregiver burden were assessed at baseline, end of sessions, and 1 month after completion. Twenty-four caregivers (12 intervention and 12 attention control) participated. At the end of the intervention, scores on positive affect, negative affect, burden, and stress all improved in the intervention compared with the control group. These scores continued to show improvement at the assessment done 1 month after intervention. Subjects were receptive to the skills and the delivery methods. The positive emotion skill-building intervention proved feasible especially in the internet videoconference delivery format. The intervention promoted positive affect and improved psychological outcomes for family caregivers of people with FTD.
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Studies by Isen and colleagues across several patient populations found an overall relationship between change in positive affect and change in health behavior.
“A series of studies by Isen and colleagues provided a self-affirmation, coping, and positive emotion intervention to several different patient populations and found an overall relationship between positive affect change and health behavior change[12,13,14,15].”
From An online positive affect skills intervention reduces depression in adults with type 2 diabetes (2014) · cites this paper as [15]
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- Authors
- Dowling, G. A., Merrilees, J., Mastick, J., Chang, V. Y., Hubbard, E., & Moskowitz, J. T.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dowling, Glenna A.
- Mastick, Judy
- Hubbard, Erin
- Venue
- Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders
- Published
- 2014-04
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 175-181
- ISSN
- 0893-0341 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2078747697
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 2.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K24MH093225)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family Caregiving in Mental Illness
- Keywords
- frontotemporal dementia, family caregivers, caregiver burden, caregiver stress, positive affect, psychological intervention, caregiver mood, behavioral symptoms of dementia
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Affect, Aged, Attention, Depression, Feasibility Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pilot Projects, Quality of Life, Stress, Psychological, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Caregivers, Internet, Videoconferencing, Frontotemporal Dementia, Mindfulness
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