Alzheimer’s disease and caregiver’s burden: The efficacy of a psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic groups

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) accounts for 54% of cases of dementia. The risk of Alzheimer increases with age and women seem to be more easily affected. Age is considered the most important risk factor for the disease. Cognitive impairment is the most evident symptom. Dementia is now considered a “social disease” because it involves not only the patient involved, but also the social network in which he/she lives. Existing welfare practices do not totally fulfil the needs of people with dementia and 80% of caregivers choose to treat family members at home, even if it is detrimental of their health and quality of life. Such disorders are highly influenced (and often activated) by environmental factors, especially by the relationship between patients and their caregivers. Nowadays, health care relies on patient’s relatives with severe and various repercussions on those assisting, such as fatigue, psychological pain, mental disorders, physical illnesses. The bio-medical approach is based on the pathology and on interventions aimed to mitigate the symptoms or to cure the disease. For this reason, it’s worthy to reaching the improvement of the quality of life, rather than focusing simply on health care. This paper describes the care burden and the efficiency of psycho-educational groups associated with psychotherapy according to the bio-psychosocial model