Depression of a Caregiver of a Person with Dementia

Dementia: a loss of cognitive ability in a person, beyond what is expected from normal aging. 

Depression: a state of feeling sad.

Caregiver: A family member or paid helper who regularly takes care of a child or a sick, elderly, or disabled person.

At one point in everyone’s life they meet a person who has dementia. Behind that person is a caregiver; the caregiver could be a mother, daughter, brother, uncle, or even someone who chose to help out. A caregiver could be the person walking next to you on the side walk, the person who bought you a coffee, or the person you saw leaving the hospital in tears. A caregiver is someone who opens up their heart and their skills to care for someone who is unable to care for their own selves anymore.  

The patient that is suffering from dementia is suffering from memory loss, difficulty in communicating, completing everyday tasks, coordination, often gets lost or disoriented, and a lot of the times has multiple personality changes. A caregiver has to deal with all these symptoms and signs and has to learn how to accept that these actions are unchangeable. 

According to the Journal of Geriatrics Psychiatry and Neurology “caregivers of persons with dementia have greater self-rated stress, higher incidence of depression, more physical symptoms, increased number of hospitalizations, and higher medication usage that noncaregivers” (Oken, Fonareva, and Wahbeh, 2012: 192). In the study done on caregivers between the ages of 45 and 85, the participants were given a self questionnaire to fill out regarding their stress, depression, fatigue, mindfulness, and sleep quality. The study proved that the caregivers had more stress which was difficult to directly correlate self admitted depression but care giving definitely puts the burden on the person and cause many mental stressers.

In the photo below, you can see what looks like a daughter caring for her mother. The sadness is her facial expression is only a glimpse of what it really is like to be a caregiver, to have an attachment to someone who doesn’t even remember your name.

When being a caregiver, one has to learn coping mechanisms to deal with the emotions. The stress and different losses a caregiver experiences is so unstable that is makes using certain coping resources difficult Noyes, Hill, Hicken, et al.; 2010). Being able to contain the emotions yet express them so they don’t build up is one of the most difficult tasks for a caregiver. The best way for a caregiver to relieve their depression is to find a way to cope with the knowledge of the disease and the loss of the patient.

Noyes, Brigg B., Hill, Robert D., Hicken, Bret L., Luptak, Marilyn, Rupper, Randall, Dailey, Nancy K., Bair, Byron D. 2010. “The Role of Grief in Dementia Caregiver.” American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias. Vol 25 (1): 9-17. (Retrieved from Sage Publications on May 29, 2013)

Oken, Barry, Fonareva, Irina, Wahbeh, Helane. 2012. “Stress-Related Cognitive Dysfunction in Dementia Caregivers”. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology. Vol 24. (4): 191-198. (Retrieved from Sage Publication on May 29, 2013)